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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







HERE 



AND 



HEREAFTER 



THIS LIFE 
A TYPE OF THE LIFE TO COME 



BY 




M. EARL DUNHAM, PH. D., D. D. 



UTICA, N. Y. 

WILLIAM T. SMITH 

1888. 



Copyright 1888, 
By Rev. M. Earl Dunham. 




Press of L. C. Guilds & Son, 
Utica, N. Y. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 



tTT HE Bible reveals comparatively little, in 
@) I (g> detail, concerning the future life. It does 
declare plainly and emphatically that 
" man dieth to live again," but gives no specific 
detail of what is meant by " living again," or 
of what shall be the special conditions, em- 
ployments and pleasures of the life that suc- 
ceeds this. Mention is made therein of 
heaven and of hades ; of " the Holy City, New 
Jerusalem," with gates of pearl and streets of 
gold, and of a " bottomless pit " and " outer 
darkness ; " of the blessedness of the saved 
and the wailings of "the lost ; " but all this is 
spoken in general terms, figurative in their 
use, and not in plain, specific language. Paul 
declares that the things which " God hath pre- 
pared for those who love Him," are wonderful 
beyond the power of description or the reach 
of imagination ; and John, the Revelator, ex- 
hausts language in his attempt to set forth the 



4 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

beauties of " the Holy City, New Jerusalem/' 
and the beatitudes of those who dwell therein; 
but neither Paul nor John goes into any detail 
of personal condition of powers, pleasures ojr 
employments. The Revelator assures us that 
in that city "God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; 
neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, 
nor pain, any more ; and there shall be no 
curse any more ; and the throne of God and of 
the Lamb shall be therein ; and His servants 
shall do Him service ; and His name, shall be 
on their foreheads ; and they shall see His 
face ; and there shall be no more night ; and 
they need no light of lamp, neither light of 
sun ; for the Lord God shall give them light ; 
and they shall reign for ever and ever ; " but 
all this is simply bewildering to our limited 
comprehension and weak imagination. Out of 
it thousands have formed theories and drawn 
pictures of that city and its inhabitants unseen, 
but the theories have been as various as the 
men who formed them, and the pictures have 
always borne the coloring of the personal de- 
sires of those who drew them. 

Even more vague and destitute of detail are 
Scripture statements concerning those who 
are "lost," whether as to their being cast into 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 5 

" outer darkness " or engulfed in the " bottom- 
less pit." The great Teacher, Jesus, speaks of 
this " outer darkness " as a place of " weeping 
and gnashing of teeth," but leaves it there 
without indicating its details if literal or its 
meaning if figurative ; and the Revelator re- 
fers to the " bottomless pit" — or " pit of the 
abyss," as it reads in the new version — rather 
as the prison-house of Satan, or the abyss out 
of which cometh evil to curse the world and 
its inhabitants, than as an abode for human 
souls ; but the figurativeness of the expression 
is too evident to require argument of the fa<5l. 
We also read in the Revelation that " the 
fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, 
and murderers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, 
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake 
which burneth with fire and brimstone ; which 
is the second death ; " but the boldness of the 
figure only bewilders as to its meaning. Paul, 
in his epistle to the Romans, says : God *will 
render to every man according to his deeds ; to 
them that by patience in well doing seek for 
glory and honor and incorruption, eternal 
life ; but unto them that are factious, and 
obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, 
shall be wrath and indignation, tribula- 
tion and anguish, upon every soul of man 



6 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of 
the Greek ; but glory and honor and peace to 
every one that worketh good, to the Jew first, 
and also to the Greek ; for there is no respe6t 
of persons with God; " but there is no evidence 
that Paul is not here speaking of this life, or, 
at the most, is only laying down a principle 
that appertains to life everwhere. And thus 
we may search through the Scriptures, finding 
much of general statement, but not finding 
that definiteness of detail, specifically applied, 
which is essential to clear understanding. It 
is true, however, that many claim to find this 
definiteness of detail in the Scriptures, but the 
f a6t is that the detail is of their own construc- 
tion, existing only in the theories which they 
have invented out of the general Scripture 
statements, and which they mistake for Scrip- 
ture ; and these details bear far more traces of 
the peculiar ideas of the human inventor than 
they do of a divine revelation. The truth is 
that the Scriptures do not attempt any detailed 
statement of the life to come, and therein offer 
one of the strongest of arguments for the di- 
vineness of their origin ; for, had they been 
originated by the mere human, they would 
have been full of theories respe6ling the con- 
ditions, employments and pleasures of the soul 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 7 

in the great hereafter, like the pretended 
revelations of Mohammed. 

That the Scriptures explicitly set forth the 
fa6l of a future state of existence is to be 
freely admitted. Especially is this true of the 
New Testament Scriptures. Jesus speaks of 
it in emphatic terms. He assured his disci- 
ples that in his " Father's house are many 
mansions," and that he would go and prepare 
a place for them, into which he would eventu- 
ally receive them ; but he gave no detail of 
what those mansions are, nor of the life to be 
lived within them. Like all the Scripture 
writers, he contented himself with general 
terms ; and yet there are many things we de- 
sire to know concerning the future life ; things 
we must know before we can form any definite 
conception of it, or make befitting preparation 
for it. What bodies shall we have in that life? 
It signifies little, in answer to this question, to 
be told that we shall have spirit or spiritual 
bedies ; for we know nothing of such bodies 
and have nothing with which to compare them. 
Outside of these material bodies which we 
possess here, we can form no conception of 
bodily form for a human soul. Shall we, then, 
in spirit life still possess material bodies ? 
The nearest answer to this are the words of 



8 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

Jesus, after his resurrection, to his terrified 
disciples, when he said to them: "Handle 
me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see me have ; " and yet all that 
Jesus really said here was that " a spirit hath 
not flesh and bones " as he had them ; not in 
the gross material form of this life ; but this 
does not preclude the possibility of a spirit 
having the equivalent for " flesh and bones '" 
in its bodily form, nor the possibility of that 
equivalent being of material substance, as 
will be shown in its proper place. It is neither 
wise nor befitting to crowd meaning into a pas- 
sage of Scripture beyond what the plain mean- 
ing of the words convey. And yet we are de- 
sirous to know, and it is right that we should 
know, about spirit bodies more than the gen- 
eral terms of Scripture tell us. 

Other equally important questions come up 
for an answer. Shall we know each other in 
the future life, love each other, live singly or 
in family groups, cultivate social ties and as- 
sociations, or find in ourselves an individual 
sufficiency that leaves no demand or place for 
outside relations ? Jesus said : " In the resur- 
rection they neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels ; " but who can 
or will tell us how the angels "are?" This 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 9 

answer of Jesus leaves us as much in ignor- 
ance as it found us. General in statement, it 
leaves all detail to speculation. And then, 
too, what language shall we use in the spirit 
land ? What means of communication shall 
we possess there ? What facilities for move- 
ment, what opportunities for intellectual cul- 
ture, what aids for spiritual growth, what oc- 
cupations and what sources of enjoyment ? 
Where shall we find the answers to these ques- 
tions ? It is true the Scriptures give hints and 
passing allusions from which we may draw 
conclusions or upon which we may build 
theories, but they offer us no plain and posi- 
tive declarations upon these points. Nor is 
this surprising,' when rightly understood. 
The Scriptures do not profess to teach us 
science nor those facts of daily life which we 
can easily find out for ourselves. Their aim is 
to teach us moral and religious truth ; to deal 
mainly with the moral and religious phases of 
human life ; to touch chiefly upon the spirit- 
ual condition and wants <pf the human soul ; 
to point out the way of happiness for time and 
for eternity ; and hence they lay stress only 
upon such human relations and duties as bear 
directly upon our obligations toward God and 
•our fellow-men. All the rest they pass over in 



10 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

comparative silence, touching them only inci- 
dentally with hints and passing allusions. 

Is it asked, why do not the Scriptures, if of 
divine origin, go more into detail of those 
things which concern every day-life, and 
especially of those things relating to the life 
to come ? The answer is simple : There is 
no need of it. The Scriptures were not given 
to teach us what we already know, or may 
know for the asking. All the questions we 
have raised or can raise concerning the future 
life find their answers written unmistakably 
plain in the fa6ls of this life. The reason 
these answers have not been found is that they 
have not been sought after where they could 
be found. Believers in the Bible as an infalli- 
ble revelation from God, have a6led upon the 
supposition that outside of the Bible nothing 
could be learned concerning a future state of 
existence ; disbelievers in the Bible as a divine 
revelation, have sought to demonstrate a future 
existence by purely scientific methods ; and 
hence each party has built a one-sided struc- 
ture and, therefore, neither has built wisely or 
well. Human life is so broad and comprehen- 
sive, embracing body, mind and spirit, and 
having to do with the material and the imma- 
terial, living through eternity in sections of 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. \\ 

time, that both the seen and the unseen, the 
natural and the supernatural, must enter into 
any theory which is to corre6tly set forth its 
career. Hence we need a revelation of the 
unseen to aid and supplement the seen in 
order to detail life here and hereafter. With 
the Bible in one hand and the book of this life 
in the other hand, we are prepared to sit down 
for the solution of the entire problem of human 
life. 

It is well for us, therefore, to enter upon an 
inquiry into the Here and the Hereafter. If, 
by any means, we can lift mankind out of the 
crude thinking of the past, and by a simple,, 
plain setting forth of the truth, plant their 
feet upon a foundation approved by their 
judgment and satisfying to their cravings for 
immortality, we shall have done a good work. 
Mankind have a right to an answer to every 
question that legitimately concerns their fu- 
ture state of existence. Even divine wisdom 
could not be justified in making us immortal 
beings, sending us into time for a brief period 
in the formation of character, and then usher- 
ing us into the wider scenes of eternity, with- 
out any positive knowledge in detail of what 
that eternity has in store for us. Still less. 
can we see of wisdom in any arrangement in. 



12 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

which this life is to mould and shape our 
character for that eternity and decide our 
happiness or misery, while it is impossible for 
us to know beforehand the conditions and 
possibilities of experiences which await us 
there. But divine wisdom is guilty of no such 
mistakes or unfairness. Ample provisions 
have been made for answering reasonable 
questions concerning life in the great here- 
after. The curtain which seems to shrowd the 
future can easily be lifted, and lifted so high 
that our gaze may penetrate down the ages of 
that future. We can get clear, distinct, de- 
tailed, Scripturally-scientinc conception of 
■" the land unseen." And then shall we learn 
that Scripture and science are leaves out of 
the same book, and life here and hereafter one 
unbroken chain of continued existence. To- 
day is the prelude of to-morrow, and the now 
is the full and complete prophesy of the then. 



CHAPTER II. 

INDEPENDENT SEARCHERS AFTER THE TRUTH. 

fN the discussion of this subject, no attempt: 
will be made to produce an exhaustive trea- 
tise. Nothing further will be sought than 
to awaken thought, stimulate research, and, so 
far as possible, induce the reader to think and 
to investigate for himself. To prove every- 
thing beyond the need of further investigation 
is not the most helpful to mankind; for we 
neither fully master nor appreciate what we 
receive without thought or the necessity of 
research. He is the wisest and best leader, 
who points out the way, throws out helpful 
hints, gives the required fa6ls, and then lays 
the burden of working out the problem upon 
those who are to be benefited by it. The 
teacher who follows this rule will succeed best 
in making scholars out of his pupils, as also 
will the preacher by it succeed in building up 
an intelligent congregation. What the world 
needs to-day is stimulators of thought, rather 
than exhaustive writers. 



14 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

Men of small mental development and of 
smaller understanding are clamoring for com- 
plete works, where all is thought out, demon- 
strated, arranged and indexed so that the 
reader will have no need of thought and no 
place for raising a query; and they do this 
without realizing that whatever is thus re- 
ceived will be neither mentally digested nor 
pra6lically assimilated; for, only what we 
think over, and, more or less, think out, really 
enters into and helps build up and strengthen 
our mental structure. This is fully shown in 
many of our schools, into which young men 
and young women enter, study for a series of 
years, and then graduate with a memorized 
accumulation of what others have written about 
art and science, but with no real perception 
themselves of what art and science are in 
principle and pra6tice. Others have done the 
thinking, and these students have only been 
furnishing storage. Hence we have hosts of 
school graduates, but comparatively few real 
scholars. So in the school of religion, compara- 
tively few can "give a reason for the hope within 
them," or an intelligent explanation of the 
creed to which they subscribe; and the reason 
for this is that for years they have been fed, 
from the pulpit, with religious food, cooked, 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 15 

seasoned and served by the minister, Sabbath 
after Sabbath, without any special thought on 
their part, or any critical analysis of what they 
have taken in, and, therefore, have been 
wholly unable to mentally digest or spirit- 
ually assimilate. Such a course may seem 
to enhance the importance of the teacher and 
the preacher by attaching authority to their 
words, but it does not make such scholars as 
the duties of this world require, nor such 
Christians as God demands for the setting up 
•of the Kingdom of righteousness among men 
We ask, therefore, that those who follow us 
in this investigation, shall take the attitude 
of independent thinkers and sincere inquirers 
after the truth. _Nor should they heed or fear 
the charge of heterodoxy, which is so freely 
hurled at any man who dares to step out of the 
beaten track of religious teaching. Shrewd re- 
ligious teachers, in all ages of the world, have 
clearly perceived that the only means by which 
a se6l is to be kept inta6l, and unquestioned ad- 
herence to a formulated creed maintained, is to 
keep the people from thinking for themselves, 
or from attempting to forge their own opinions 
out of the ore of truth; and lest there might 
be revolt, the stigma of heterodoxy was in- 
vented to stamp with opprobrium, all who dare 



16 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

call in question the creed and tenets these re- 
ligious teachers have laid down. But who is. 
to determine what is orthodox and what is. 
heterodox? Among the so-called orthodox 
teachers of the world there is no agreement. 
They have broken the religious world into 
sedrts, with creeds widely at variance and often 
antagonistic. All can not be right, in an or- 
thodox sense: for Webster defines orthodoxy 
as " a belief in the genuine doctrines taught 
in the Scriptures;" and it is evident that all 
these varying and antagonistic church creeds 
can not be "genuine do6lrines taught in the 
Scriptures." How, then, shall we know which 
is orthodox and which is heterodox, unless 
we examine for ourselves? And, since good 
men, learned men, honest men, differ so 
widely and so antagonistically, may it not be 
that all are mistaken in some particulars, and 
that the real, unadulterated truth remains to 
be found out? This thought seems to give us 
warrant for fresh investigation, even along 
new lines of thought, if we pursue it in mod- 
esty and sincerity. It is yet to be shown who 
are the true orthodox teachers of Bible truth, 
and it becomes us all to be modest in our 
claims to orthodoxy. In the mean time, we 
should accept whatever comes to us with con- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. . 17 

vincing power; for to be honest with ourselves 
we must accept as truth whatever impresses 
us with its truthfulness, even though this may- 
compel us to cut loose from some old moorings 
of belief. 

In investigating a subject like this,, we are 
not to expe6l to demonstrate with the clearness 
and positiveness of a mathematical problem, 
or with exactness of a chemical analysis. 
Aside from the statements given us in the 
Scriptures, our investigation into a future life 
must rely mainly upon analogy; and analogy, 
while lacking in the definiteness and conclu- 
siveness of some other kinds of argument, is 
abundantly able to furnish grounds for an in- 
telligent and reasonable belief. Bishop Butler, 
Arch-deacon Paley and other eminent thinkers 
and writers have used it with convincing ef- 
fect. In all our systems of logic it holds an 
important place, while in theological discus- 
sions it has ranked second only to the positive 
declarations of Scripture. With Jesus, the 
greatest, wisest and best teacher this world 
has ever known, it was a favorite method of 
teaching, illustrating and enforcing truth.. 
We shall, therefore, use it freely in our further 
investigation of this subje6t, and confidently 
rely upon its conclusions. And we here begin 

B 



18 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

with it as a warrant for our hope of finding a 
fuller knowledge of the conditions, associa- 
tions, employments and enjoyments of the 
future life than has heretofore been attained. 
No one supposes that we have reached the ul- 
timatum of science. Though the keenest, 
brightest, most clearsighted minds this world 
has ever produced, have been searching, test- 
ing, drawing conclusions and putting forth 
their proclamations, for centuries, still new 
light is breaking in, new discoveries are being 
made, leading to corrections, emendations and 
sometimes entire changes in what previously 
was supposed to be true. Nor is the end of 
these yet reached; they are going on every 
day; and we style this " scientific advance- 
ment," and arrogate glory to this nineteenth 
century as a consequence. Without hesitation 
we hail each new scientific discovery with de- 
light, and rejoice in the thought that thus we 
are being brought nearer to the real truth. 

Well, here are the great truths referred to in 
the Scriptures, taking in time and eternity, 
God and humanity, life and death, existence 
here and hereafter, powers angelic and divine, 
the eternal welfare of that soul which we can 
neither see nor comprehend, the attributes of 
the infinite Sovereign of the universe with all 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 19 

His plans, purposes and provisions of mercy 
and justice, and that sublimest of manifesta- 
tions of the Christ of God among men, a mani- 
festation so unfathomable that Paul says an- 
gels can not comprehend it, and because some 
finite, fallible man or set of men has written 
out a statement of what they understand to be 
the sum and substance of these truths, we are 
called upon to subscribe to their statement or 
be branded as heretics! If absurdity has 
sounded a deeper depth than this, the hu- 
man mind has failed to perceive it! No 
science is so far-reaching, so all-embracing, so 
interwoven with man's destiny for time and 
for eternity, as the spiritual science set forth 
in the Bible. To suppose that, as yet, any man 
has comprehended it in its fullness, or that 
any set of men has fathomed ail its depths, is 
beyond all reasonable belief. If any science, in 
this world or in the next, is to be progressive 
in its comprehension by the human mind, cer- 
tainly this science must be chief in that re- 
spect; and no greater folly can be committed 
than to pin one's faith to a creed made two or 
three centuries ago. Either the intellectual 
advancement of an hundred years has brought 
us an hundred years nearer to a correct under- 
standing of Scripture teaching and spiritual 



20 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

truth, or else the religious world has fallen 
immeasurably behind the scientific. No age 
has ever been so well prepared to formulate 
creeds and write commentaries on the Scrip- 
tures as is this ; and in doing so it is reason- 
able to expe6t, not only new statements but 
also new ideas, with copious corrections and 
emendations of the old. Already our concep- 
tions of God, of His fatherhood and attitude 
toward mankind, are materially changed from 
those held a century ago ; and corresponding 
changes are taking place in our conceptions of 
the possibilities and destiny of the human 
soul. 

Now, these changes are taking place, not 
because the Scriptures are untrue, but because 
we are coming to a better understanding of 
their meaning; nor will these changes set aside 
the Scriptures, but rather verify and utilize 
them. As yet we are in the dawn of theological 
truth ; we have only entered the vestibule of its 
temple ; and the revelations yet to come will 
transcend immeasurably those of the present. 
With increased capacity for mental conception, 
and enlarged power of comprehension, and 
intensified sensibility of spiritual intuition, we 
shall reach out into the deeper things of God's 
eternal truth and find that Paul spoke advis- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 21 

edly as he looked down the future and pro- 
phetically said : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
man the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love Him." The analogy of unfold- 
ing scientific knowledge fully warrants this, 
and we may confidently expe6l it. By this, 
however, it is not meant that the fundamentals 
will change any more than they do in other 
sciences ; for the underlaying principles are 
eternal and never change ; but the theoretical 
edifices we build out of those principles may 
be, more or less, consumed, because so inter- 
mixed with " hay, wood or stubble " as to be 
unable to stand the testing fire of truth. It 
ought to content us to know that out of the 
ashes of the consumed will arise other .and 
more beautiful ones. 

Analogy will be found especially useful and 
reliable in searching out the methods of God 
as seen in His laws. He is one, " the same 
yesterday, to-day and forever," working out a 
plan without change or variableness. Finding 
what He does to-day, we find what He will 
always do in like circumstances. Ascertaining 
a principle or law of His government, we have 
ascertained what is eternal. And what is 
especially pertinent in the present inquiry is 



22 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the fa6t that though the divine government 
embraces the three kingdoms of the material, 
intellectual and spiritual, yet in all He follows 
one model, so that each may be a school for 
the other. Hence analogy will carry us from 
the material to the intellectual, and from the 
intellectual to the spiritual. This facSl greatly 
simplifies our iniquiry and facilitates our re- 
search. It enables us to reason from this life 
concerning the life to come ; and in the end 
we shall find, laying all along our earthly 
pathway, answers to all the questions legiti- 
mately arising out of our inquiries into facSls 
and possibilities which lie wrapped up in a 
future state of existence. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TESTIMONY OF SCIENCE AND OF SCRIPTURE. 

f. N order to enter upon an intelligent inquiry 
; into those facT:s concerning the future life 
which we greatly desire to know, it is im- 
portant to have a clear understanding of the 
testimony of science and of revelation. What 
proof do these afford us? Each gives us hints, 
and awakens speculation, and points to the 
fa6ls, but does enter into specific detail. Sci- 
ence tells us that nothing is ever lost in the 
sum total of created forces; that when a mate- 
rial organization dies or is destroyed, it is only 
disintegrated as to its elements, which are thus 
set free for other uses ; that these set-free el- 
ements will continue intacT: and will be reor- 
ganized into new animate or inanimate forms ; 
and that thus nothing is annihilated, lost or 
destroyed. Here is an immortality of elemen- 
tal substances but not of organized bodies or 
bodily forms ; an immortality in the midst of 
life and death, and running through successive 
changes. 



24 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

Science, therefore, teaches a kind of immor- 
tality or, more properly, an indestructibility 
of matter, but deals not with spirit. It fur- 
nishes, however, some basis for the old idea of 
transmigration of souls, or rather the transmi- 
gration of the elements of which souls are 
made, by assuring us that the indestru6lible 
atoms of matter are constantly going the round 
of disintegration and reorganization. One 
bodily form disappears only to furnish materi- 
als for the appearance of other bodily forms. 
If this be true of matter, it would be easy to 
infer that the like is true of spirit ; and so the 
do6lrine of the transmigration of souls would 
be reached. But this do6lrine, whatever of 
scientific basis it may possess, does not meet 
and satisfy the demands of our longings for 
continued existence. We desire a continued 
personality. All the deeper affe6lions of our 
nature crave this. The child of our heart, the 
friend of our love, the companions of earth-life, 
are bound to us by a personality, a self-hood, 
without which affecftion would be a myth and 
a delusion. Indeed, we can form no conception 
of love disconne6ted with the personality of 
the being loved. Hence, our desire for immor- 
tality, either for ourselves or for our friends, 
embraces the idea of continued personality, 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 25 

which means' personal identity. We can con- 
ceive of no pleasure in existence aside from 
this. If we are to exist at all beyond this life, 
we must continue to be sentient beings, with 
body, intellect and spirit, in definite organi- 
zation, capable of knowing and being known, 
of loving and being loved, and of reproducing 
in associated intercourse all that is good, noble 
and desirable in this life, or existence, from 
our present power of appreciation, would be 
wholly undesirable. It would be a virtual dis- 
ruption and casting away of all that made this 
life worth the living. 

Is there, then, a future life for us in which 
all that is true or good or desirable in this life 
will be continued or reproduced? To this 
question science offers no conclusive answer. 
It stands between two sections of eternity, the 
past and the future, without power to penetrate 
either. Its torch shines brilliantly in the pres- 
ent, but cannot pierce the mists of the future 
nor dispel the darkness of the past. Along 
the vale of time, dealing with the visible and 
the tangible, it walks with the tread of a mas- 
ter and speaks with authority, but on either 
side are mountains it cannot scale. What was 
before the visible beginning of things, and 
what will be after them, can only be known 



26 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

by a dire6l revelation, or be inferred by the 
teachings of analogy. Wise men may talk of 
life's birth in a protoplasm or bioplasm, and 
display great learning and ingenuity therein, 
but they are dumb when inquiry is made con- 
cerning the origin of the plasm, and the source 
from whence it derives its power to give birth 
to life. Science may trace the career of life 
down to what is called death, but its investi- 
gation stops at the grave, with no power to 
trace life beyond. And so science is practi- 
cally dumb respecting personal existence in the 
great hereafter, or whether there be any here- 
after of sentient, organized being for mankind 
beyond the grave. 

To supplement science comes in revelation. 
What science cannot ascertain by research, 
revelation declares. Where science is dumb- 
revelation speaks. The two are mutual help- 
ers ; for where revelation is silent science 
speaks ; and it is the united voice of the two 
which brings to us the full truth. Of this we 
shall have fuller knowledge as we pursue our 
investigation into the life to come. But here 
we may be met with the inquiry, so often raised^ 
as to the possibility of such a revelation being 
given to men. Can truth, beyond the reach of 
human investigation, be impressed upon hu- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 27 

man minds, and through those minds be re- 
vealed to mankind? The answer does not seem, 
difficult to any student of psychology ; for such 
well know that one mind can put another mind 
so completely under its control as to determine 
its thoughts, words, and the consequent bodily 
a6tion. Psychologize a person, by the proces s 
more generally known as mesmerism, and that 
person will do, say or a6l out whatever his 
mesmerizer commands ; and this command 
need not be spoken orally; it can be equally well 
conveyed by the silent a6l of the will. The con- 
dition is that of one mind in complete submis- 
sion to another, so that the will of the control- 
ling mind is carried out in thought and a6l by 
the submissive mind. If, then, a human mind 
can thus control another human mind, and_ 
that, too, in perfect accord with the law of 
mental a6lion, how much more fully ought the. 
divine mind to do this. The divine is im- 
measurably more powerful than the human, 
and, by the operation of psychological force, 
can control to any extent desired. It can take 
possession of the human, so fully and com- 
pletely, as to determine the thoughts and words, 
and bring forth a revelation of higher truth 
in such a way that the human shall be only 
the instrument of the divine utterance. Hence. 



-28 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the possibility of a divine revelation to men is 
of the highest order. The probability of such 
a revelation stands equally high when we take 
into consideration the ignorance of mankind 
concerning those truths which relate to their 
welfare for time and for eternity. Much which 
is of the greatest importance lies beyond the 
reach of unaided human investigation. A 
revelation of this would be of incalculable 
benefit; and such a revelation might reason- 
ably be expefted if we believe in the father- 
hood of God. 

There is, therefore, nothing miraculous, 
surprising or incredible in the idea of a divine 
revelation of higher spiritual truth being given 
to men; a revelation made by the divine mind 
operating upon and through some human 
mind; and since the divine mind, which in its 
work of revelation is called the Holy Spirit, 
is the possessor of all truth, it logically fol- 
lows that this Holy Spirit can impart to a hu- 
man mind, and through that human mind to 
the race of mankind, truths of the highest 
order, which unaided human investigation 
could not attain. In doing this the Holy Spirit 
would supplement scientific research, by re- 
vealing to men what lay beyond the reach of 
..science. In this way, all that is essential for 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 29 

men to know of the seen and of the unseen 
can be made known unto them. And this 
supplementary work is precisely what the 
Scriptures claim for themselves; a revelation 
from God to men of important truths which 
are essential to human welfare, but which 
men could not find out by the ordinary means 
of scientific research. 

What, then, are some of the higher truths 
set forth in the Scriptures? Chief among 
these is the existence of God, omniscient, om- 
nipotent and omnipresent, the Creator and 
Sovereign Ruler of all things. There are also 
set forth the attributes of His character and 
His relation to a world of mortals. We are 
told that we are the offspring of His creative 
power and the objects of His fatherly love and 
care; that w r e are placed in this life to prepare 
for another; that after a period of growth, de- 
velopment and training we shall be ushered 
into a spiritual state of existence; and that 
our condition in that spiritual state of exist- 
ence will be the outcome of the life we have 
lived and the character we have formed while 
in the flesh. There are also pointed out to us 
the opportunities and means of fitting our- 
selves for that spiritual life, the aids and helps 
provided, and the way of relief through te 



:30 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

pentance, reformation and consequent recu- 
peration, from the direful consequences of sins 
and transgressions. What God has done for us 
and what He will do for us are clearly and 
specifically stated. The sweep of this revela- 
tion is as broad as time and as wide as eter- 
nity. Indeed its sweep into eternity forms the 
most important part of it. It lays open the 
whole arrangement of this life as a prepara- 
tory stage for that which is to follow, and 
makes nothing valuable here only as it con- 
tributes to existence hereafter. It portrays 
the present as a training school for the future, 
a formative period for subsequent purposes, 
and thus unites the here and the hereafter 
into one continued whole. Dying is only 
transition, death a gateway between two 
periods of existence, and life beyond the tomb 
as real as life on this side. It is true the body 
decays and goes back into the elements out of 
which it was constructed, and so does the house 
we abandon and leave to the weather. In- 
deed, the body is only a house of flesh, mova- 
ble and flexible, in which the soul dwells for 
a time, and when the soul moves out of it, the 
house is left to be taken down by decay and 
put to other uses. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 31 

Now just here is a point where science and 
revelation meet and supplement each other. 
Science can tell us all we need to know about 
the body, the particulars of its growth, de- 
velopment and destruction, for the body is 
visible, tangible, comprehensible; but science 
has no word for us concerning the soul; that is 
invisible, intangible, incomprehensible, and 
whatever we know^ of it must come to us 
through revelation. Hence revelation comes 
in here to supplement what science tells us of 
our personal being, and the two together lay 
before us fact concerning our entire nature, 
both material and spiritual. It is true, reve- 
lation speaks largely in general terms, w T ith 
comparatively little of detail; and there is no 
need for anything more than this; indeed, it 
is better that there is no fuller detail; for 
what can be learned by our own effort is best 
thus learned; and with the revealed statement 
of general facts and principles, we can go out 
into the fields of life and learn the details for 
ourselves. The Scriptures tell as of God, un- 
changeable, perfe6l in wisdom, infinite in 
.goodness, omnipotent in power, and assure us 
that this God is our loving Father, more wil- 
ling to do for mankind, His earthly children, 
than earthly parents are to do for their child- 



32 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

ren, and with this statement in our hand, we can 
go out into the fields of life and challenge 
facts for proof and illustration. They also 
tell us of the human soul, divinely created, 
tenderly provided for, destined to live forever, 
first in these fleshly bodies and then out of 
them, and of the possible experiences of the 
soul in love, joy, peace and conscious commun- 
ion with God, and thus give us statements 
we can verify in personal life. They further 
make this earth life the basis, shaper and il- 
lustration of spirit life, assuring us that 
whatever we sow here we shall reap there, 
and throw open to us the whole field of in- 
quiry into the life to come. Hence we can 
now enter upon an investigation of a future 
state of existence with as much ease and cer- 
tainty as we can of the present life; for this 
present life is the type of that which is to 
come. Learning what laws, principles and 
forces enter into our present life, we shall know 
what laws, principles and forces will enter 
into our future life; for life is one, though di- 
vided into two sections. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BASIS OF OUR ARGUMENT AND ITS PROOF OF 
CONTINUED BODILY EXISTENCE. 

r HE basis of our analogical inquiry into 
(9 the conditions, employments, enjoyments 
and possibilities of the future state of 
existence for mortals will be found in the 
attributes of God. That He exists, omniscent, 
omnipotent, omnipresent and unchangeable, is 
now admitted by all enlightened peoples. The 
existence and attributes of God, therefore, will 
here be assumed without any attempt at proof, 
and this argument will be built thereupon. 
Infinite in wisdom, omnipotent in power, it 
follows that whatsoever God does will be well 
done. Being the producSt of infinite qualities 
of perfection in the Maker, the thing made: 
must bear the stamp of perfection. There will 
be no defects to call for an afterthought of 
improvement, no place for betterment through 
change, no call for addition to insure comple- 
tion, but all will stand unchanged and*un- 
changeable, the embodiment of perfection and 



£4 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the fullest possible expression of infinite wis- 
dom and skill. Therefore, what God has once 
instituted as law and method will stand for- 
ever unchanged. His a6ls are the highest, 
truest, perfe6l and eternal expression of His 
will and purpose. Hence learning what His 
a6ls have been in the past, or what they are in 
the present, is learning what they will be, 
under like conditions, throughout all eternity. 
Having lain down a principle or having estab- 
lished a law, He never changes or modifies it. 
This fa6l the Scriptures specifically set forth. 
In them we are told that God is one u with 
whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning," or, as the new version more forcibly 
expresses it, " with whom can be no variable- 
ness, neither shadow that is cast by turning." 
With Him all His a6ls are a finality. A prin- 
ciple laid down is eternal ; a law established is 
established forever; as unchangeable as is His 
character so unchangeable are His a6ls and 
methods. "I am the Lord; I change not," 
spake Jehovah through the mouth of the 
prophet Malachi ; and such is the revelation 
of Himself from the beginning to the very 
close of Scripture. 

The benefits accruing to us from this un- 
changeableness of the Divine character and 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 35 

methods are manifold. By it we are lifted out 
of the region of uncertainty into that of cer- 
tainty ; out of all chance happenings into 
orderly and reliable realities ; out of all possi- 
bility of capriciousness. Once having ascer- 
tained the existence of a divine law, how it 
operates, what it is set to do, what bearing it 
has upon human welfare, we have ascertained 
fa6ls which will remain fa6ls forever. We can 
rely, with the utmost confidence, upon the 
knowledge thus gained for future use. But 
we need first to be sure that we have found 
the law and the fa6ls concerning it; for at 
this point there is a possibility of our being 
mistaken. We may only partially perceive 
and draw false conclusions, or mistake for 
law a passing phenomenal occurrence; but in 
all this the fault is in us and not in the law. 
If we have really and truly found what the 
law is, what it is set to do, and how it works, 
we have found what will continue to be and 
we can build on that knowledge, for the 
present and for the future, in supreme confi- 
dence. This certainty is the basis, and the only 
basis, upon which any system of science can be 
founded; and it is the basis on which scientists 
build every day. Having discovered a law 
or principle and verified it, they rely upon it 



36 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

for all future use. They write it down as posi- 
tive knowledge, because they have come to 
understand that in the fields of nature, which 
are the fields of God's operations, what is 
once true will always be true under precisely 
the same circumstances; that every law or 
principle incorporated into the divinely-con- 
stituted order of things is eternal; and that 
whatever God does is complete, perfect, un- 
changeable, everlasting. 

Here, then, we have a reliable foundation 
upon which to build; the foundation of God's 
perfect, unchangeable, eternal work. We only 
need ascertain what are the laws and princi- 
ples which enter into life here to know what 
are the laws and principles which enter into 
life hereafter. Hence our study begins with 
this life. What are the facts now and here? 
How are we constituted, how do we live, by 
what laws is our welfare secured, what prin- 
ciples of thought and a6lion underlie our 
happiness? By analogy from these we may 
learn what will be in our future state of ex- 
istence. Here we are triune; a combination 
of matter, mind and spirit; a distin6l person- 
ality. This trinity is God's method of con- 
stituting a human being; and since God's 
methods change not> if we are to live for ever,, 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 37 

this trinity must continue for ever. Indeed, 
we can not form any definite conception of 
personality or bodily form, or individual exist- 
ence even, with one of these parts left out; 
nor is there any occasion for our attempting 
it. The union of these three elements, mat- 
ter, mind and spirit, is God's perfect and 
eternal plan of finite personality and individu- 
ality. Hence, so long as the human being ex- 
ists, whether in this life or in the life to come, 
these three component elements must enter 
into that being; for the present order of 
human life is the perfect and unchangeable 
type of that which is to come. 

Just here will arise the objection that mat- 
ter is perishable, snbje6t to change, given to 
decay; that the very law of our physical bodies 
compels an ultimate return to the dust out of 
which they are formed; and that matter is 
visible, tangible, while a spirit is invisible, in- 
tangible; how then can these gross bodies be- 
come fitted for spirit uses? We see these bod- 
ies die and know they turn to dust in the grave; 
what possible evidence is there, then, that 
we shall still possess physical bodies in spirit 
life? To answer this objection it is necessary 
to inquire into the nature and possibilities of 
matter. What, then, is matter? What are its 



38 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

possibilities? As already stated, matter is in- 
destructible and, therefore, eternal. In it are 
certain principles of attraction which remain 
with it and operate upon it wherever it exists. 
It is also subjecSl to the control of what we term 
the principle or force of life which builds out 
of it bodily forms, in orderly arrangement and 
definite organization, in accordance with di- 
vine appointment; and hence we are war- 
ranted in the conclusion that this subserviency 
of matter to life will continue where the two 
come in conta6l. We are further taught by 
the science of chemistry that matter may 
be refined and attenuated beyond the power 
of eye to see it, or of touch to feelit, becoming 
thus an invisible, impalpable substance, but 
none the less real matter. Such refined, at- 
tenuated matter, as found in the subtle ether 
that fills all space, has unlimited power of 
penetration, and would serve the purpose of 
spirit bodies; and hence it is clearly within the. 
range of possibility for us to be clothed with 
material bodies in spirit life. That such will 
be the facSl is specifically stated by Paul, who 
affirms that " as we have borne the image of 
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the 
heavenly; " that is, as we have been clothed 
with bodies made out of the gross matter of 



HERE AND HEREAFTER, 39 

earth, so shall we be clothed with bodies made 
out of the refined matter of the heavenly ; or, 
in other words, we shall have in heaven spirit 
bodies, evolved out of these gross earthly 
bodies by the alchemy of divine ;visdom and 
skill, of which the one shall be the counterpart 
of the other. Thus all questions of future 
identity and recognition will be fully met and 
satisfactorily settled. 

Science thus furnishes us ample evidence of 
the possibility of material spirit bodies. To 
this we add the teaching of analogy as drawn 
from this life. Here life begins in matter, so 
far as its manifestation is concerned; that is, 
matter is preceding and co-existent with the 
first appearance of life. Indeed, we know 
nothing of life except in its union with and 
manifestation through material organization. 
Will this not be equally true in the other life ? 
Does not spirit existence and manifestation 
equally necessitate a union between matter 
and spirit ? Will not the limitation of percep- 
tion there demand it as much as it does here ? 
These questions, in the light of our present 
capacity for knowing and perceiving, must be 
answered in the affirmative ; and that such 
affirmative answers are the true ones will be 
shown farther on. And here it is to be borne 



40 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

in mind that matter is always prepared for the 
uses it is to subserve. The great Author and 
Overseer of all things has amply provided for 
this, whether it is to be used in plant or animal 
organization, or in gaseous form. By the same 
provision the matter to be used in spirit bodies 
will be adapted to spirit life. Here we have to 
do with matter in its grosser forms, and it is 
befitting that our bodies should be correspond- 
ingly gross ; there we shall have to do with 
matter in its refined and attenuated forms, and 
the same law of adaptation would make our 
bodies correspondingly refined and attenuated- 
And may not the physical changes which are 
now going on within us, day by day, be a re- 
fining process for the evolution of our spirit 
bodies ? Physiology tells us that the material 
of our present bodies is constantly undergoing 
change. Some portions of it are renewed every 
few months ; and in the space of seven years 
we are made all over anew. May there not 
be, in this change, a process of refinement by 
which matter is prepared for the spirit bodies 
we shall need ? If so, then at each stage of our 
earth career pace is kept with prepared mate- 
rial, ready for any moment that we may be 
called into the spirit land; and each, on enter- 
ing, will be clothed upon with material spirit 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 41 

bodies corresponding with the development 
attained physically in this life. Thus the other 
life, like this, will have all stages of develop- 
ment, from infancy to full manhood, and re- 
produce individuality as we see it here. 

Paul evidently holds this opinion in his cele- 
brated epistle to the Corinthians. He likens 
the change of body from natural to spiritual 
to the process which goes on in the growth of 
grain from the seed. The seed sown evolves 
out of itself that which is incorporated into 
the new grain ; and the process is so exa<5t and 
certain that the new grain has a body of its 
own, and yet bears the resemblance and char- 
acteristics of the seed from which it is evolved. 
" vSo, also, is the resurrection of the dead. It 
(the body) is sown in corruption: it is raised 
in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonor: it is 
raised in glory; it is sow r n in weakness: it is 
raised in power ; it is sown a natural body: it 
is raised a spiritual body " — the spiritual com- 
ing out of the natural as the grain comes out 
of the seed. This is the constituted order. 
" That is not first which is spiritual, but that 
which is natural ; then that which is spiritual." 
The natural is temporary ; the spiritual is 
eternal. The natural is for earth; the spiritual 
s for heaven. The one shall perish ; the other 



42 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

shall abide forever ; but the abiding is evolved 
out of the perishable. Thus the words of Paul 
shall be verified : " As is the earthy, such 
are they also that are earthy ; and as is the 
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
And as we have borne the image of the earthy? 
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 
And the bodily likeness between the two shall 
be as close in resemblance as the wheat har- 
vested is to the wheat from which it grew. 

While Paul thus definitely sets forth the fa6l 
of this likeness, he is careful to draw a distinc- 
tion between the gross matter of earthly bodies 
and the. refined matter of heavenly bodies. 
Earthly bodies are flesh and blood which " can 
not inherit the Kingdom of God;" heavenly 
bodies are refined matter which is the material 
substance of the Kingdom of God ; and hence 
the gross earthy must be changed into the re- 
fined heavenly when the transition from this 
life to the other takes place. To speak more 
correcStly, the process of death eliminates the 
refined out of the gross, and we bear away the 
one and leave the other. " We shall all be 
changed," by casting off all that is corruptible; 
u for this corruptible must put on incorruption, 
and this mortal must put on immortality;" and 
thus we reach the crowning glory of this life, 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 43 

the fruitage of incorruption and immortality. 
Even death and the grave shall be made sub- 
servient agencies to help us to the possession 
of bodies imperishable; for "when this cor- 
ruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then 
shall come to pass the saying that is written : 
Death is swallowed up in vi6tory. O death, 
where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
vi6lory ? " The power of decay and dissolu- 
tion, symbolized by death and the grave, will 
lose its grip, and we shall have passed into 
that higher form of existence where death and 
the grave will be known no more. 

Thus Paul's celebrated argument for the 
resurrection of the entire man, accords with 
the teachings of analogy as drawn from this 
life, and with what science says the future 
body must be, if it be at all. Nor is there any- 
thing about it that we would have changed or 
modified. It meets all the demands of our 
nature. It preserves our trinity of being and 
assures our personal identity. It retains all 
our powers of activity, makes recognition of 
friends certain and the re-grouping of families, 
possible. Therewith we may well be content. 



CHAPTER V. 

INTELLECUTUAL LIFE AND EMPLOYMENT IN 
SPIRIT LIFE. 

"E naturally pass from the physical to 
the mental. What will be our mental 
condition in spirit life? Let analogy 
answer. In this life the body is only the 
dwelling-house, and the organs of the body 
the instruments of the mind. This is the di- 
vinely instituted order, and, therefore, eternal. 
Hence the spirit body must hold the same re- 
lation to the spirit mind, that this earthy body 
holds to mind here. It will continue to be a 
dwelling-house, and its organs servants to do 
the will of the mind. Death works no change 
in relations or uses. What man is here, he 
will be there. The divinely established trinity 
of his being will continue forever, without 
change in the mutual relations of its parts. 
What God has thus joined together shall never 
be put asunder. 

Now, it is universally admitted that spirit 
mind possesses all the qualities, faculties, capa- 
bilities and characteristics which belong- to or 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 45- 

inhere in mind as we know it. It must have 
perception and conception, reason and judg- 
ment, reflection and comparison, will and im- 
pulse, memory and imagination, and all the 
functions of mental action; for these are essen- 
tial to mind itself, and only through their 
manifestations have we any knowledge of what 
mind is. We have no power to penetrate into- 
the essence of things; we are limited to the 
knowledge of manifestations; and hence the: 
only idea we can get of mind is that which 
comes to us through mental action. We be- 
lieve there is something back of thought, 
reason, judgment, and other mental functions; 
and this something, known only to us through 
manifestations, we call the human mind. 
When, therefore, we speak of spirit-mind, we 
necessarily include all the qualities, faculties 
and functions which enter into our mental 
action here ; and in order to be intellectual 
beings there, to recognize each other as such, 
with surroundings to take cognizance of, truths 
to perceive, acquirements to attain, duties to 
perform, associations and scenes to enjoy, we 
shall need as full and free exercise of intellec- 
tual powers as are possessed by us here. That 
such is the reality is clearly set forth in the 
Scriptures. The parable of Jesus concerning 



46 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

Dives and Lazarus who died and passed into 
the spirit world, represents both as in full 
possession of all their intellectual faculties, as 
represented by the conversation passing be- 
tween them, in which Abraham appealed es- 
pecially to the memory and perception of the 
rich man. Indeed, the entire reference of 
Scripture to the future life recognizes the soul 
there as a conscious being, with powers intensi- 
fied rather than weakened; and so the Scrip- 
tures fully warrant us in the belief that the 
present intellectual life will be continued, not 
ofrly unabated, but increasing in power forever. 
Desiring, therefore, to know the law, the 
process and the methods of intellectual acSlion 
in the world to come, we have only to study 
them as they are exemplified in this world. 
The present gives a full and explicit explana- 
tion of the future. As we have power to in- 
vestigate, to learn, to know and to store up in 
memory now, so shall we have then. Here we 
-only make the beginning of that which is to go 
on forever. Here we pick up a few gems of 
truth on the sands of time while the vast ex- 
panse of eternity awaits our exploration. Here 
we learn the simpler manifestations of divine 
power and goodness, while the higher and 
more complex are to be learned in the ages to 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 47 

come. Here we master the alphabet of knowl- 
edge while the great book of that which is 
knowable will require eternity for its research. 
It is true, we, the infants in the family of God, 
boast of the extent of our knowledge, and 
pride ourselves upon the value and variety of 
present attainments, but all we know, in com- 
parison with what there is to be known, is only 
as a drop to the ocean or a grain of sand to 
a continent. The thought, at first, is over- 
whelming; but when we come to consider that 
an eternity is before us in which to push for- 
ward our progress into this vast treasury of 
truth, we are cheered and inspired. Of course, 
we can not, even with an eternity of effort, 
reach omniscience;- none but the Infinite can 
do that; but we may be ever pushing on toward 
it, and thus forever find something to invite 
our research and to add to our joy in increasing 
knowledge. 

These fa6ls assure us that spirit life can 
never pall, or lose zest, or become a burden, 
through lack of inspiration and incentive. 
There will ever be something new for us to 
learn, some new truth or deeper principle to 
be investigated, some more subtle law to be 
ascertained, and thus an ever-present incentive 
to the exercise of our mental powers. And 



48 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

so our school-day will extend throughout eter- 
nity. Death only promotes us to a higher de- 
partment of God's vast university, and each 
succeeding epoch of eternal ages will open to 
us wider views, grander attainments and fuller 
development. This will insure to us the joy 
o living, and make our career one continual 
march upward. To-day our chief delight in 
life is that, in knowledge and experience, we 
are richer than we were yesterday; and the 
joy of our expectation is that to-morrow will 
advance us still farther. Without this daily 
increase, life would not be worth the living. 
It would be existence without zest, a monot- 
onous journey of inexpressible weariness, a 
burden without alleviation, a wearing away 
of days of which the only joy would be in the 
certainty that death eventually would enable 
us to lay it down. Such a life would be the 
blackness of horror, the acme of wretchedness. 
Fortunately, however, such is not the life thrust 
upon us. We are made for constant activity; 
there are opened before us ever widening ave- 
nues for research; the conditions are most fa- 
vorable; and when we are free from the weights 
of gross flesh and its attendant ailments; when 
our faculties are let forth in full play, with 
opportunities unlimited and a work day un- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 49 

ending, there will come crowding in upon us 
new experiences, new revelations, new de- 
lights, in everlasting succession, filling our 
cup of life full to overflowing. Ah! yes; life 
there will be grand! living will be glorious. 

As to what will be our intellectual employ- 
ment in spirit life, may be learned from this 
life. Here we pursue science in its various 
branches, and find both pleasure and profit in 
the knowledge we thus attain; but, at our best, 
we only make a beginning, feeling assured 
that beyond our present attainments are fields 
vast to be explored. Of those branches with 
which we are most familiar we only succeed 
here in getting hold of some of the primary 
facts and principles. If, then, we find pleasure 
and profit in the little we learn here, there can 
be no good reason why we should not find 
even greater pleasure and profit in pushing 
out among the broader facts and deeper prin- 
ciples of these sciences in the hereafter. In- 
deed, why are we put to school at all here in 
the primary department of scientific truth, 
unless, at some time and some where, we are 
to be granted the privilege of going on to the 
knowledge of the higher? The law 7 s and prin- 
ciples of science are eternal. What is true of 
any branch of science in time will be true of 



50 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

it throughout eternity. The relations of mind 
to science are those which God established and, 
therefore, are eternal. Hence if we find intel- 
lectual pleasure in the pursuit of science here, 
we shall find none the less hereafter; and since 
God has given us power to know the great 
truths of science and an innate love for them, 
He will give us at some time and some where, 
abundant opportunity to find them out. We are 
fully warranted, therefore, in the belief that the 
range of intellectual pursuits in the spirit life 
will be even more wide and varied and delight- 
ful than in this life. The more we know the 
more we perceive there is to be known and the 
greater delight we find in knowing; and with- 
out question there are laws, in God's universe, 
of which, as yet, we know nothing; branches 
of science which lie entirely beyond our pres- 
ent power of comprehension; truths so refined 
and subtle that only spirit can receive and 
understand them. These, added to what is 
already revealed, will open a field of research 
sufficient toemploy all our intellectual faculties 
throughout eternity. 

These assurances are particularly comfort- 
ing. Many of us have neither the time nor the 
^opportunity for the intellectual culture we de- 
sire. The demands of our physical wants, the 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 51 

cares of business and of home, the multiplicity 
of calls upon our attention and strength, pre- 
clude much study in the fields of science; we 
mourn over our ignorance and intelle6tual 
poverty; but we need not " mourn as those 
who have no hope." Our possibilities are not 
limited to the " three score and ten" years of 
this life; they will continue more abundantly 
after "the fitful fever of this life is ended." 
What we fail in attaining here, we may attain 
hereafter. That thirst for knowledge which 
found no stream on earth to satisfy, will find 
its satisfaction in the life to come. Spirit life 
will furnish the complement of earth life and 
thus round out the period of existence. 

If, then, we have, less here, we can patiently 
wait for the more hereafter. To no human 
soul will opportunities be wanting for its full 
development. If not provided with these on 
this side of the river of death, it will be on 
the other side. No soul shall have it truly to 
say that the Great Father has dealt unfairly 
or unlovingly with a single child of His. The 
provision for all and for each is ample; the 
allotments are impartial; the distribution is 
under the direction of infinite wisdom and 
love; the possibilities are glorious. Even from 
an intellectual standpoint, we may exclaim 



52 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

with Paul: " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love Him." The divine storehouse is full 
the dispensing hand is that of a loving Father, 
and no possible human want, present or pros- 
pective, in time or throughout eternity, shall 
go unsupplied. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONTINUED SENSIBILITIES AND THE SOURCES OF 
HAPPINESS OR MISERY. 

MNITED with pure intellect are the sensi- 
bilities. These are classified as sensa- 
tion, emotion, desire, propensity, appetite, 
affe6lions, principles and passions. Of these, 
sensation and appetite are usually regarded as 
adhering in the physical of our being; but that 
they do so exclusively may be questioned. No 
doubt the body and bodily conditions have 
much to do with these two sensibilities ; and 
yet, it cannot be denied, that it is the brain 
which takes cognizance of them. Stupefy the 
brain and the body may be pierced, cut, torn 
into shreds, without a twinge of pain or appar- 
ent sensation. With a stupefied brain the 
stomach is utterly devoid of appetite. While, 
then, it is true that bodily conditions give rise 
to sensations and appetites, it is none the less 
true that the brain alone takes cognizance of 
these and thereby causes them to be felt reali- 
ties. Is it not, then, the brain that really 
feels ? Is not the apparent sensation or appe- 



54 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

tite in the body only the result of the brain 
locating the place where a physical disturbance 
is taking place ? It is certain that sensation 
and appetite produce mental states, and it is 
more than probable that what we recognize as 
feelings are only the mental states thus pro- 
duced. If this be true, then sensation and ap- 
petite will exist wherever mind and body come 
together ; and since mind and body are still to 
be united in spirit life, it follows that sensation 
and appetite will be possible, in some form and 
to some extent, in the spirit world. Jesus 
openly and positively taught that such would 
be the case. He spoke of the tormented body 
and parched tongue of Dives after he had 
passed into the spirit world ; and though this 
has been usually interpreted as a mere figure 
of speech, and not as the statement of fa6l r 
still there is no reason to dispute the recogni- 
tion in it of bodily sensation and appetite, ex- 
cept it be to make it harmonize with the inter- 
preter's theological belief. It is as plain a 
statement of continued physical sensation in 
the spirit world as could well be made, and 
beyond that fa<5t our present purpose does not 
take us. 

This statement of Jesus is clearly founded 
on the fa6l that this life is the fountain out of 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 55 

which flows the future life, and that the ex- 
periences here are the prototype and source of 
the experiences there. It also goes to show 
that body and mind will exist together forever, 
and forms a reliable basis for the conclu- 
sion that what sensations or appetites have 
been known by humanity in this world, will 
be possible in the world to come. Of course, 
there must be taken into the account the modi- 
fications which will arise from the refined ma- 
terial composing the future body, and whatever 
of change there may be in the environments. 
All that is claimed here is that the general law 
of sensation and appetite will still be in force 
and operation in spirit life, though perhaps 
producing some change in the quality, tone 
and intensity of effect. We shall be ourselves 
eternally, subje6l to the conditions, laws, and 
results which enter into God's established rela- 
tions of mind and body. 

When we turn our attention to the considera- 
tion of those sensibilities which have to do 
chiefly, if not wholly, with the mind, our way 
becomes unmistakably plain. These are emo- 
tion, desire, propensity, affeftions, principles 
and passions. Emotions are those mental 
states dire6lly and immediately induced by 
thought, and must be co-existent with thought 



56 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

itself. Desires are sensitive mental conditions 
impelling to seek or to avoid some particular 
objedt. When desires become habitual or per- 
manent, they are called propensities ; when 
the objecSt is a living being or class of beings, 
the propensity is denominated an affeftion ; 
when the propensity bears on an objecSt of pure 
thought, or an intellectual apprehension, it is 
known as a principle; when the propensity has 
reference to laws of duty, methods of correcSt 
living or of virtuous aftion, it is designated as 
a general a6live principle ; and when the pro- 
pensity becomes intense, strong and perma- 
nently developed, so that its gratification is a 
leading objecSt of desire or of pursuit, it is 
called a passion. Passions may be temporary 
or permanent, according as they arise from a 
sudden and evanescent impulse, or have be- 
come fixed from long and constant indulgence. 
It will not be disputed that these conditions 
of sensibility arise from the acSlion of the mind, 
whether that a£t ion be excited by external or 
internal causes. It is assumable, therefore, 
that so long as mental acSlion is possible these 
conditions of sensibility will be possible ; and 
that if mind exists in spirit existence, it will 
possess there these sensibilities. Not one of 
our mental faculties, qualities, characteristics 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 57 

will be left out. They must all be retained 
because they are constituent parts of our men- 
tality, and mind would cease to be mind if any 
of these were wanting. The wise Creator 
never puts any superfluity in His created 
products. Each element and attribute has its 
place and use, and is so important that if re- 
moved the whole structure is destroyed. 
Hence, we must carry with us into spirit life 
all that enters into our mental composition and 
experience in this life. How far sensation and 
appetite may be modified by the change of the 
physical from the gross to the refined, can not 
now be determined ; for we have not as yet 
learned the mode or eff eft of this bodily change ; 
but the mind will need no change, and, there- 
fore, we can prediSl concerning its future with 
a credible degree of certainty. Mentally we 
shall pass into spirit life without any change, 
.and shall be there precisely what we are here. 
Our mental existence will go right on without 
change, interruption or modification. 

From these premises, it follows that spirit 
life, equally with this, will be capable of joy or 
sorrow, pleasure or pain, happiness or misery, 
and from similar causes ; and this fa6l has a 
significant bearing upon the life to come. By 
it we learn that that life will not be one of ex- 



58 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

elusive happiness or misery ; at least, not in 
its beginning. As in this life, circumstances, 
external and internal, will determine the allot- 
ment of each. We enter no external heaven 
or hell where joy is unalloyed or misery unal- 
leviated. Indeed, heaven and hell are far more 
internal than external ; they are conscious 
states of feeling, thinking souls rather than 
outside surroundings ; they exist as definitely 
and distin6tly in this life as they ever will in 
the life to come. Take sin and its conse- 
quences out of this world and no possible 
heaven could be more desirable ; let sin riot 
and revel here, and no possible hell could be 
more filled with the blackness of despair ; and 
we can find heaven or hell everywhere, accord- 
ing as human hearts make it. This f aft should 
be constantly borne in mind in all discussions 
of future happiness and misery. No possible 
surroundings, however beautiful, perfe6l or en- 
trancing, can produce the joy and peace of 
heaven in a sinful, human soul ; no possible 
surroundings, however undesirable and repul- 
sive, can beget the miseries of hell in a pure 
soul. The heart is a fountain out of which 
flow the springs of human happiness ; and 
whether the outflowing waters shall be bitter 
or sweet depends wholly upon the state of the 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 59 

fountain. No facSl is more explicitly taught 
in the Scriptures than this. Jesus laid great 
stress upon it. He laid down purity of heart 
as the basis of all happiness, both here and 
hereafter. Sin and consequent impurity work 
misery wherever they are. Life once begun 
is to flow on forever, and the law of its happi- 
ness or misery never changes. 

Nothing is more unwarranted than the too 
prevalent belief that death will usher God's 
children into a heaven of such perfe6l peace 
that they shall never more know care, anxiety 
perplexity or regret ; for death can work no 
change in a man's heart or disposition. It can 
only introduce us into the other life just as we 
are and what we are. If, then, we are sinful, 
impatient, fretful, willful, disobedient, here, 
we must begin existence there in precisely this 
condition ; and if we do not desire to enter 
upon life there with these characteristics, we 
must not cultivate or harbor them here. It is 
a matter for us to decide practically, and no 
power will over-ride our decision. This is our 
preparation period. If we do poor or bad work 
here, we must take the consequences hereafter. 
The law of life as divinely established puts the 
determination in our own hands, and that law 



60 HERE AND HEREAFTER. . 

is eternal. We can neither escape nor evade 
the responsibility it places upon us. 

Just here it is well to mention — what will be 
more fully discussed farther on — the wonder- 
ful provision of mercy in God's law of recuper- 
ation for weak and fallible humanity. By 
divine help, repentance and reformation can 
change, uproot and eliminate evil propensities, 
dispositions and practices, and restore the sin- 
ner to purity, righteousness and fitness for 
heaven. Indeed, to bring about such restora- 
tion is the end sought by the mission and gos- 
pel of Jesus. What God seeks at the hands of 
mankind is purity, holiness and righteousness. 
Hence the invitation so freely and fully set 
forth in the Scriptures and extended to the 
sinful everywhere, bidding them come to the 
cleansing waters of life, of which, if a man 
drink, he shall live forever; and wherever and 
whenever the sinner cometh and drinketh, he 
will receive cleansing and acceptance with 
God. This is God's eternal provision of mercy, 
as broad as the wants of sinful and suffering 
humanity and as lasting as eternity; the divine 
provision for cleansing, healing and recupera- 
tion. 

Thus the whole question of future happiness 
or misery is one of the heart. Joy or sorrow 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 61 

springs from the inside of us. The fibres of 
feeling respond to the good or the evil within 
us. What we treasure on earth in passion^ 
disposition or propensity we must take with us 
into the future life. If we are fretful, quarrel- 
some, sinful here we shall so begin life there. 
The only way to be rid of these is through the 
divinely established process of recuperation. 
The bad in thought, in disposition, in life and 
habit must be taken out of us by the uprooting 
and casting out process. No mere scheme of 
forgiveness can do it. Only by " ceasing to do 
evil and learning to do well " can it be done. 
Even divine power from the outside can not 
change the soul's nature or internal condition. 
This must be done by the voluntary a6lion of 
the soul, co-operating with divine help on the 
inside. Every human soul must work out its 
own salvation, while God works in it both to 
will and to do, by the elimination of evil and 
the practical reception of good. In no other 
way can the heaven of which we so fondly 
dream, become to us a reality. 



CHAPTER VII. 

man's spiritual nature and its relation to 
human welfare. 

\ I /HUS far we have spoken chiefly of the 
<s)Jfo physical and the intellectual. But we 
are more than matter and mind ; we are 
spirit as well. These three enter into and 
complete the trinity of our being, in an ascend- 
ing order, of which the spiritual is the crown- 
ing glory. The physical brings us into contact 
w 7 ith material things; the intellectual puts us in 
communication with the truths of God as inter- 
woven in the manifestation of His power ; the 
spiritual reveals to us God Himself. Allied as 
we are with two worlds and the things therein, 
it is befitting we should be enabled to com- 
municate with each ; and this we do by means 
of our triune nature. By the physical and the 
intellectual we communicate with this material 
world in which we now live ; by the spiritual 
and the intellectual we communicate with the 
spirit w r orld in which we are to live ; thus we 
find the intellectual serving as a tie between 
the physical and the spiritual, binding all 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 63 

three into one union. On the physical side, 
our outlook is wholly toward that which is 
tangible and comprehensible; on the spiritual, 
our outlook is as wholly toward the intangible 
and incomprehensible ; while through the in- 
tellectual we look both ways. Thus are we 
fitted to communicate with, and discharge the 
activities of, life in both worlds ; that which, 
to us, now is and that which, to us, is to come. 
Not only can we learn and know the material 
combinations and laws of this earth upon which 
we live, but we .can also learn and know of 
God and the things of His spiritual kingdom. 
By spiritual intuition we can talk with God ; 
by faith we can walk with Him ; by an inner 
consciousness we can feel His presence ; by 
filial love we can believe in Him as our Father; 
and thus be enabled to trust in Him, and be 
sensibly wrapped in the garment of His infi- 
nite goodness as we are by the sweet sunshine, 
and feel in our hearts His indwelling life as 
we feel the pulsing tide of natural life along 
our veins. 

In all ages of the world mankind have be- 
lieved in their power to communicate with 
God, though with little of clear and definite 
understanding of their spiritual nature. Nor 
is this ignorance surprising. Coming into this 



64 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

world, we are first met by the imperative de- 
mand of physical wants. These clamor for 
attention and will not be ignored. Food, rai- 
ment and shelter we must have ; and these, 
too, not only for our personal self, but also for 
those committed to our care. Any negle6t 
here is followed by immediate disaster ; and 
since God, in the constitution of our bodies 
and in bringing us into this world, has placed 
these duties upon us and plainly holds us to 
the striclest account, we may not safely turn 
aside from them. Well, earth has an abund- 
ant supply for all our physical needs, but does 
not yield to us one particle without some price 
demanded in return. To many of us this price 
taxes our brain and muscle to weariness, so 
that when the price is paid, we are compelled 
to seek recuperation in rest. And this is a 
daily experience for six-sevenths of our time ; 
an experience so exhausting that on the 
seventh day, divinely set apart for rest and 
spiritual things, we are too wearied to feel the 
thrill of spiritual life or to seek for spiritual 
communication. And, then, added to all this 
are the cares of social and domestic life, the 
duties we owe to the State and to the nation, 
the multiplied calls coming through our rela- 
tions to the world around us ; all of which 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. (15 

together so absorb the time and the attention 
of a majority of mankind, as to leave them no 
disposition to give heed to things of a higher 
and more intangible nature. 

It goes for little to say that mankind ought 
not to be so absorbed in those things which 
appertain chiefly to this life; ought not to be 
so anxious about what they shall eat and wear 
and possess; ought not to rob their spiritual 
nature of that portion of time and attention 
which properly belongs to it; for just here we 
are stating what is, not what ought to be, and 
trying to find the cause of it. The fa<5t is that 
all must live in this world, and that thus far 
the great majority have lived for this world, 
with scarce a seriously intelligent thought of 
anything beyond. Even their intellectual fac- 
ulties are, in a surprising degree, left undevel- 
oped and uncultured, beyond the little knowl- 
edge absolutely necessary for present uses* 
But suppose the man strives to rise above the 
a6l of digging and delving for the physical 
and starts out for a higher and fuller devel- 
opment of the inherent powers of his manhood, 
he is met, at the next step, with demands of 
his intellect. All around him are the laws and 
operations of material forces, which stand 
readv to lift from him the burden of toil, to 



66 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

increase his power over nature, to multiply his 
resources, to administer to his comfort, and 
thus to appeal to his selfish instinfts. He 
finds there is so much to be learned, and which 
being learned can aid him grandly and greatly 
in the affairs of this life, that he enters upon 
this field with a new absorption of time and 
attention. The spiritual again is left out and 
its legitimate share of time and attention is 
given to other things. It is literally crowded 
out by science, which, though grand and lofty 
in its nature, always meets us, at first, with 
our thoughts turned earthward, and, too often 
alas! leaves us there. Science, in and of itself, 
alone and unenlightened by spiritual light, has 
no lifting power toward God and spiritual 
things. It can make man learned beyond com- 
parison; a walking library; a master of mate- 
rial forces ; an embodiment of intelle<5tual light ; 
and yet leave him without purity of heart, ho- 
liness of purpose, or conscious knowledge of 
God as an indwelling presence in the human 
soul. Indeed, it is not the province of science, 
without spiritual aid, to beget these qualities. 
Science is hard, cold fa6t. It makes no moral 
discriminations. It speaks of nothing outly- 
ing the realm of reason, and knows nothing 
of faith. It teaches man to walk by sight and 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 67 

to disbelieve what he cannot demonstrate. It 
has to do with the head, and not with the heart. 
It is mighty in the exposition of law, but dumb 
in the region of morals. It can make one wise 
for the affairs of this world, but is powerless 
to make him good and pure for the other world. 
And yet science is grand, noble, divine. Not 
a word is to be spoken against it. In its own 
sphere it is authoritative and supreme as the 
voice of God; but only when joined with the 
spiritual and receiving that light and life 
which the spiritual alone can give, does it be- 
come a mighty auxiliary for building up the 
kingdom of righteousness in human hearts. 

Now, man has a moral nature, and is fitted 
to cherish moral feelings and to perform moral 
actions. He needs, therefore, such moral influ- 
ences as shall awaken these feelings and 
arouse him to these actions. Especially he 
must possess moral, discrimination and an ap- 
preciation of that which is right and just. 
But moral influences can reach him only 
through the spiritual, the faculty which has 
power of moral discrimination; and he will 
appreciate right and justice as moral obliga- 
tions in proportion as the spiritual is alive and 
a6tive within him. His spiritual nature, there- 
fore, is an important fa6lor in his well-being. 



68 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

It is that which will keep him from evil and 
from the consequences of evil. If his spirit- 
ual nature is dormant, no matter how alive 
and acStive his intellectual faculties, he is want- 
ing in the very power which is set for his safe- 
guard against ruin. But man's moral nature, 
like his physical and intellectual,, begins in 
germ powers which can grow only by the law 
of development, through the exercise of use. 
These powers are potent with possibilities to 
be realized, but the realization cannot come 
until these possibilities are actualized by pa- 
tient care and labor. God is ever ready to 
speak, but man cannot hear until his spiritual 
ear is trained to hearing. Moral influences 
hover around, always seeking avenues of com- 
munication, but they are powerless beyond the 
receptive condition of the soul's sensibility^ 
Only as the spiritual nature of man is alive 
and acSlive will man be enabled to lay hold of 
moral truth and be swayed by moral influ- 
ences, and thereby come into that inter-com- 
munion with the spirit world which will give 
him power to draw therefrom that which he 
must have in order to round out his manhood 
and to perfecSl his happiness. But here lies 
the difficulty. The spiritual part of our triune 
being is highest and farthest removed from 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 69 

earth and earthly things, and, amid the strife 
and worry and wear of things pertaining sole- 
ly to this life, is largely lost sight of and 
passed by. The physical must be attended to, 
the intellectual clamors for attention, and 
these press their claims so persistently 
and so absorbingly that, too often, little time 
or thought is left for anything else. In the 
mean time, we are in a world full of sinful 
temptations. The lusts and passions, appe- 
tites and propensities, of the flesh seek for in- 
dulgence, and the love of the world and the 
pride of success allure to unjust gains. Through 
lack of spiritual light, the moral faculties are 
more or less inactive, moral restraint is want- 
ing, and we are swept away into the tide of 
evil. Impure desires find lodgment in our 
hearts, unholy propensities lay hold of our 
affecStions, depraved appetites gain more or 
less of mastery and "sin reigns in our mem- 
bers." This greatly complicates our condition, 
and forges chains and fetters for our spiritual 
nature. Moral impurity raises a barrier be- 
tween us and God, excludes communication 
with Him and pure spiritual beings, and leaves 
ns without protection against evil. In an im- 
portant sense, we are thus shut out from God 
and any conscious intercourse with Him; for, 



70 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

purity cannot affiliate and dwell with impur- 
ity; and since God and all his messengers of 
mercy are pure, we cannot receive Him con- 
sciously into our hearts, or feel the blessed in- 
fluences they exert upon the pure. 

Nor is this all. Our spiritual faculties can 
be developed and trained only by contaCt with 
and influences from the spirit world. As the 
physical is developed by the physical and the 
intellectual by the intellectual, so must the 
spiritual be developed by the spiritual. And,, 
then, too, the spiritual is higher than the phys- 
ical or the intellectual, and the law of devel- 
opment is that the lower cannot develop the 
higher. Thus there is no way of progress 
through these lower into the higher. Matter 
cannot blossom out into life of itself or be the 
progenitor of life; but life can seize upon mat- 
ter and incorporate it into the blossom of life. 
The higher has constructive power over the 
lower. Thus plant life can lift the substance 
of the mineral into a living form. But this 
is only constructive power, not creative. 
Though joined together for a time, still the 
mineral does not cease to be mineral nor 
plant-life to be plant life; and each goes back 
into its separate self when the union is dis- 
solved. Neither has power to create the other. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 71 

So spiritual power is distin6t from and supe- 
rior to intellectual and physical power. It can 
use these, but they cannot use it. It may 
quicken and help develop them, but they are 
servants and not masters. But alas! when 
the master is dormant not only, but chained 
and bound by evil! Or to speak more truly, 
is shut out from holy influences and open to 
evil influences; for this is the real fa6l in the 
case. If evil hold the citadel within, evil in- 
fluences will find ready access; and soman's 
moral condition in sin is doubly complicated; 
for he is not only shut out from good and holy 
influences, but is open to evil through all the 
avenues of his spiritual nature. When the 
master is the servant of evil, how much more 
shall the servants be. 

This state of things would be amazing and 
wholly inexplicable, in the light of divine wis- 
dom and of infinite goodness, if these were 
all the fails in the case ; but they are not. 
The ultimate end of the divine purpose is a 
complete, full and harmonious development of 
the entire man. Whatever may be the seeming 
complications in the process of this develop- 
ment, there can be none so great that Omnis- 
cience cannot find a way out of them; nor can 
there be any bondage so helpless that infinite 



72 HERE AND HEREAFTER, 

mercy will not find a way of relief. Now we 
see "as through a glass darkly," but when we 
see in the light of the completed purpose of 
God, we will unquestionably find that the pres- 
ent line of human experience is the wisest 
and best possible ; the shortest, surest, safest 
road to a completed manhood. The perfe6l 
man must know good from evil, and know 
by such experience as will cause him forever 
and unfalteringly to cling to the good and to 
eschew the evil. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RELATION OF OUR TRIUNE PARTS TO EACH 
OTHER IN THE WORK OF LIFE. 

fINCE the divine purpose in human life is 
to bring forth a complete and perfe6l 
manhood, and the divine allotments are 
designed by infinite wisdom for this purpose, 
we can readily perceive that that training and 
those experiences are wisest and best which 
■contribute most dire6lly and successfully to 
the development of all our powers in harmoni- 
ous relations with each other. To develop one 
part of our nature to the negledl of the others 
is only to produce an abnormal condition which 
is neither wise nor desirable. Complete and 
perfecl happiness is attainable only in a com- 
plete and perfect manhood, and such manhood 
is not possible in an abnormal condition. Our 
powers of body, mind and spirit must be in 
accord in order to work harmoniously together 
and to bring forth the best results. Hence it 
is important for us to seek this accord, this 
harmonious adjustment of all our powers, so 



74 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

that our life may move steadily onward in the 
perfect way. It is all the more important be- 
cause we have no opportunity of return to 
correct the mistakes we make, to undo the 
wrongs committed, or to perform the duties: 
negledted. Time sweeps us steadily forwards 
and each day brings enough of its own de- 
mands to fill up every moment of the passing 
hours. If we should attempt to correcSt yester- 
day's mistakes, or undo its wrongs, or take up 
its neglected duties, it would only result in 
the negle6l of to-day's duties; and so we are 
obliged to push on as we are, learning wisdom 
from the past and applying that wisdom to 
the present. This is the best we can do under 
our circumstances, and it is the most that i& 
required of us. 

Of course, we are to make as -few mistakes, 
as possible; to neglecSt no known duty, and to- 
be true and faithful to the extent of our knowl- 
edge. Beyond this also we are to seek to know 
in order that we may do. We are to study our 
selves, our powers, our opportunities, the aids 
offered us, the proper means of development 
of all our faculties, the uses to which they are 
to be put, and how we can best and most suc- 
cessfully round out our entire manhood, in 
harmonious unity, along the line of perfection ~ 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 75 

This leads us to inquire into the relation to 
each other of the elements in our triune being; 
and in this inquiry we find that matter is sub- 
ject to mind, and both matter and mind are 
subje6t to spirit. The lower has no power to 
push itself, up into the higher, but the higher 
can reach down and seize upon, control and 
use, the lower. By no possibility can matter 
be changed into mind, but mind can use mat- 
ter to the extent of its will. We see this illus- 
trated in all mechanical inventions, in chemi- 
cal combinations, in the thousand uses to which 
matter is put at the dictation of mind. But. 
even this superior power of mind is limited to* 
use; for mind has no power by which it can 
make matter cease to be matter, either by 
annihilation or transformation. And so of 
spirit in its relation to both mind and matter^ 
It is superior to both, but its superiority is 
limited to the power of use and control. In 
fa6l, the lower can not exist in organization 
only at the dictation and under the control of 
the higher. We see this illustrated in our 
physical structure. Only while the principle 
of life remains in our bodies as an a<5tive force 
does our physical structure continue. That 
departed, our bodies decay and return to dust. 
Now, whether this principle of life resides in. 



76 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the mind, or in the spirit, or is superior to 
both, is a question lying beyond our present 
power of research; but it illustrates the law of 
the complete dependence of the lower upon 
the higher in matters of organization. And 
the same law is seen in the power of mind 
over matter as appears in the facial expression 
of individuals. As a rule, it is very easy to 
recognize a professional, or literary person by 
the face, which bears the stamp of the acSlive 
intellect upon it; and as to vulgarity or refine- 
ment, dispositions or passions, the fa6l is still 
more marked. Beyond this we are learning 
more fully every day of the powerful control of 
the mental over the physical, even to the ex- 
tent of producing and curing disease; and, as 
to appetites, passions, propensities, we know 
these would run riot in unlimited excess were 
it not for the curb of the will under the guid- 
ance of reason. And then, too, the mind is all 
important in the discovery, understanding and 
application of the laws of physiology and of 
hygiene which underlie our physical welfare. 
Hence to secure our highest physical well- 
being, we need developed and trained mental 
faculties, of vigorous power and keen percep- 
tion, able to ascertain the laws of physical life 
and to apply them for our good. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 77 

We come, then, to this question : How are 
we to obtain this necessary development and. 
training of our mental faculties ? Has the 
mind power in and of itself to do this work ?' 
Certainly not. If the human mind, from the 
first moment of its existence, could be shut up 
within itself, with no actual or possible con- 
tact with anything external, it would, undoubt- 
edly, be as unacting as the stones at our feet. 
Mind acts as it is acted upon. Though superior 
and controlling in its relation to the physical 
body, it is inferior to and controlled by the 
spirit, which is the highest and all-controllings 
of the three elements which enter into and 
make up our triune nature. Thought is the 
product of the mental faculties set in action 
by some cause outside of themselves. We are 
all conscious of this, and, in most instances,, 
can trace the line of thought back to the cause 
which originated it. Indeed, it is an unsettled 
question as to whether we have any thoughts 
which are not resultants of causes distinct 
from the mind itself. Even what is called in- 
tuition, or intuitive perceptions, is more than 
probably the resultant of unseen influences 
acting upon the mental faculties, or of external 
causes operating through spiritual avenues. 
Besides, in this estimate we must include 



78 HEBE AND HEREAFTER. 

spiritual forces which a6l upon our mental 
faculties ; for we are constantly in contact 
with the spirit world. Spirit forces easily 
reach our mental and physical sensibilities 
through the spiritual department of our 
being. These can excite thought, arouse ap- 
petite or passion, and have much to do with 
-our mental and physical condition. In f a6l, as 
the spiritual is superior to both the mental 
and the physical, it follows that it must be the 
most potent f a6lor of our well-being, in giving 
tone, direction and character to both. 

In order, therefore, to attain clear thinking, 
right conclusions, pure living, and happy re- 
sults, we must be right spiritually ; for all 
these are determined by spiritual conditions. 
Jesus taught this when he said : "Seek ye first 
the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, 
and all these things shall be added unto you ;" 
that is, become in spiritual harmony with God, 
and all needed light and wisdom will be given 
for the attainment of all the body shall need. 
But just here is another important fa6l to be 
noticed; it is the fa6l that our spiritual facul- 
ties, in and of themselves, have no power or 
capability of self-development and training. 
They a6l as a6led upon by spiritual forces and 
influences; and as their a6tion sends a power- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 79 

f ul influence down upon the mental and physi- 
cal, it follows that the tone, direction and char- 
acter of our thoughts and a6lions will depend 
largely, if not mainly, upon the kind of spirit 
forces or influences afting upon us. The 
Scriptures fully corroborate this fa<5t. They 
show that a man's life and actions are con- 
trolled by the spirit or spirits within him. 
Jesus healed by casting out evil spirits, or de- 
mons, from men; and the health thus given was 
only preserved by keeping the evil spirits out. 
Jesus gave a special illustration of this by de- 
pi6ling a man out of whom an unclean spirit 
had gone, but returned with seven others 
worse than himself and entered into the man 
again, making his condition worse than at first. 
And in fa6l, the only way in which Jesus ever 
proposed to heal men, physically or spiritually, 
in body or soul, is that of casting out the 
spirit of evil and the inbringing of the spirit 
•of good. On this the whole gospel of Jesus, 
the Christ, is based; for this the whole scheme 
of salvation is devised; for the only salvation 
men need is to be freed from the sw r ay of evil 
and put into subje6tion to good. 

We can see, therefore, what an important 
part our spiritual nature performs in our well- 
being. It is the avenue by which good or 



80 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

'evil influences reach us. Hence the import- 
ance of putting ourselves in communication 
with God that He may so fill us that there 
shall be no room for evil. All our present and 
future happiness depends upon this. If we 
allow evil influences to come in, with their 
corrupting and depraving power, the results 
can not be otherwise than disastrous. And we 
should not forget, for a moment, that the only 
thing we can do is to choose between the forces 
that stand ready to control us. We do not. 
create these forces ; we can not control their 
approach ; we can only exclude the one class 
by admitting the other. They will not dwell 
together. One or the other must rule within 
us. Our freedom of action lies just here. We 
may resist the evil and cling to the good ; or 
we may reje6l the good and submit ourselves 
to the evil. Beyond this our freedom does not 
extend ; for, when we have submitted ourselves, 
to either good or evil forces, we become there- 
after mere servants. Paul clearly recognized 
this fa<5t when he wrote unto the Romans, say- 
ing : "Let not sin reign in your mortal body,, 
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof ;. 
neither yield ye your members as instruments 
of unrighteousness unto sin ; but yield your- 
selves unto God, as those alive from the dead* 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 81 

and your members as instruments of righteous- 
ness unto God ; " for, " know ye not, that to 
whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, 
his servants ye are to whom ye obey ; whether 
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto right- 
eousness ? " But Paul speaks even more plain 
and emphatic than this. Regarding " the 
mind of the flesh " as sinful, he says : " They 
that are after the flesh do mind the things of 
the flesh ; but they that are after the spirit, 
the things of the spirit ; for the mind of the 
flesh is death ; but the mind of the spirit is 
life and peace ; because the mind of the flesh 
is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to* 
the law of God, neither indeed can it be ; ancft 
they that are in the flesh can not please God. 
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, 
if so be that the' Spirit of God dwelleth in 
you." This is a clear recognition of the faclr 
that if evil dwells within the man he will be 
the servant of evil ; and that in that condition! 
he neither can nor will do the will of God or 
obey the law of righteousness. The only pos- 
sible chance for him to follow the way of right 
living is to first have " the mind of the flesh " 
cast out, and then " the mind of the spirit '* 
brought in. The causative forces must first 
be right and pure before the resultant, living 



82 HERE AND HEREAFTER, 

can be good and holy. And herein lies the 
whole necessity for conversion; indeed, this is 
conversion, the precise change of which Jesus 
speaks where he says : " Except ye be con- 
verted, ye shall in no wise enter into the king- 
dom of heaven." The evil must be cast out 
and the good permitted to come in. " A good 
tree can not bring forth evil fruit, neither can 
a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." There 
must be a change in character before there can 
be a change in results. If evil reigns within 
us, it must be cast out before we can possibly 
bring forth fruits unto righteousness. If we 
would seek good and pursue it, we must eschew 
evil and shut out evil influences. Hence the 
great aim of all our purpose and effort should 
be to ally ourselves with those spiritual forces 
which are pure and holy ; for just there is the 
determining point of our personal character 
and practical life. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SPIRIT INFLUENCES BOTH OF GOOD AND OF EVIL. 

fT will be well for us to study this question of 
our spiritual conta6l with good and evil 
more thoroughly; for it enters deeply into 
our daily life and character, and determines 
our condition both in this life and the life to 
come. Good is positive, evil is negative; good 
is a<5tual, evil is relative; good is eternal, evil 
is temporary.. As cold is the absence of heat, 
and darkness the absence of light, so evil is 
the absence of good; and since by the very 
law of nature there is no neutral point between 
these conditions, no point where it is neither 
the one nor the other, it follows that where 
good is absent evil must be present; just as 
where light or heat is absent there must be 
the opposite darkness or cold. Hence every 
human heart must be under the sway of good 
or evil, or in that most unhappy condition 
where a confli6l is being waged between the 
two for the mastery; and, as the two cannot 
dwell together, the only way by which to be 



84 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

wholly free from evil is to be wholly filled with 
good. This is an important fact to keep in 
mind, and with it should be constantly remem- 
bered that other fact, that just in proportion 
as good gives way, evil comes in. Many per- 
sons mistake here. They regard both good 
and evil as actual, positive, separate qualities* 
with no necessary connection with each others 
and fancy they can reject the good and stil^ 
keep from the evil. This is as impossible as, 
it is to put out a light without producing a 
corresponding darkness, or to withdraw a cer- 
tain amount of heat without causing relatively 
a corresponding amount of cold; and this im- 
possibility arises from the fact that evil is only 
the absence of good, and that where good is 
absent there must be a corresponding extent 
of evil. 

This view of good and evil is thoroughly 
Scriptural; for the Scriptures represent the 
human heart as filled with evil simply and 
solely because it has not God in it, the essence 
of all good, as a consciously abiding and con- 
trolling presence. The whole mission of Jesus 
was to teach men how they might have the e- 
vil cast out and divine good brought in; and 
the Scriptures assure us that there is no other 
way of escape from the power of evil. John 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 85 

positively asserts that whoever has this divine 
goodness abiding in him does "not commit sin, 
for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot 
sin because he is born of God." This accords 
with our own judgment which tells us that no 
man will or can be dishonest so long as the 
spirit of stri6l honesty abides and rules in him, 
nor can he be vicious under the sway of virtue. 
Only in consequence of the lack of pure and 
holy motives and influences can we, by any 
possibility, be swayed by evil. Therefore, 
evil is relative, negative and temporary, condi- 
tioned entirely on the absence of good, and 
is to wholly disappear when the Scriptural 
prophesy of the final triumph of righteous- 
ness is fulfilled and good " subdues all things 
to itself." 

We notice also that in the realm of morals 
" like attracts like." Good people attract good 
people, and evil-disposed people attracSt the 
evil-disposed. This fa6l has passed into the 
adage which declares that " birds of a feather 
flock together," and is too universally recog- 
nized to require proof. We exhibit it in our 
own sele6tion of associates, and see it in the 
marked selection of associates among our 
neighbors. But this attraction is not confined 
to those in the flesh. It exists among spirits 



g6 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

and operates between us and the inhabitants 
of the spirit world. Even Jesus was tempted 
by the devil, and found men possessed of de- 
mons, which he cast out, and which his disci- 
ples after him cast out. He is recorded as 
having cast seven devils out of Mary Magda- 
lene, a legion of devils out of two men found 
among the tombs, and single devils, in great 
numbers, out of the sick and insane, while 
both he and his disciples were profuse in warn- 
the people against evil spirits seeking to lead 
them astray. 

If this were the condition of things two 
thousand years ago, it is unquestionably the 
condition of to-day. There has been no change 
in man's relation to the spirit world and inter- 
course with its inhabitants. Of course, we 
cannot bring absolute demonstration here for 
we cannot see spirits, but the Scriptural teach- 
ing on this point meets and explains much of 
human character and a6tions which, otherwise, 
is inexplicable; and it is on this basis that 
modern spiritism finds its chief support. The 
Christian faith, also, while not positively as- 
serting the possibility of departed spirits com- 
municating with the living, carries with it a 
strong probability of such being the fa6l; for 
t is decidedly positive as to the power of an- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER, 87 

gels, both good and bad, to exert an influence 
upon mankind; and, as the Scriptures declare 
that, in spirit life, we shall be like the angels, 
it requires no great stretch of imagination to 
believe that, as spirits, we can do what the 
angels do. Granted, then, the power of angels 
to communicate with us in the flesh, it follows 
logically that the spirits of our departed 
friends may likewise communicate with us. 

Hence it seems warrantable to believe that 
we are in communication with and are influ- 
enced by the inhabitants of the spirit world; 
and, by the law of like attracting like, that 
each individual will attract to himself spirits 
in harmony with his own personal character. 
If good be absent from the heart the attraction 
will be for evil ; and if God be not dwelling 
there, evil spirits_will enter in and abide ; and 
since human conduct is the result of the in- 
fluences which inspire and control it, it follows 
inevitably that whoever is thus possessed of 
evil spirits, will walk in the ways of sin and 
of unrighteousness. It is purely here the 
operation of cause and effect ; nor is there any 
possible escape from the effect aside from a 
change in the cause. If we are under the sway 
of evil, our life will be impure and unholy, and 
the only possible remedy for this is that of 



88 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

casting out the evil and the bringing in of the 
good. Indeed, this is precisely what the Christ 
of God is seeking to do for the children of 
men ; this is emphatically the gospel of salva- 
tion which Jesus preached ; this is the saving 
power offered to all men ; the casting out of 
all evil by the conscious entering in of the 
divine Presence, and the saving of the soul by 
the Christ of God dwelling in it. Of this we 
shall speak more fully further on. Suffice it 
here, that this casting out and entering in con- 
stitutes the "new birth" of which the Scrip- 
tures speak. As Paul writes to the Corinthi- 
ans : "If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature ; the old things are passed away ; 
behold, they are become new." The evil spirits 
are cast out and communication with them cut 
off, because spirits of good have come in and 
occupy both thought and purpose. The con- 
sequent life will be as different from the 
former as are the controlling influences. 
Hence everything depends upon the choice 
we make, the influences to which we subje6l 
ourselves, the powers to which we submit as 
servants. 

It becomes, therefore, an important inquiry, 
as to what is our spiritual alliance by nature. 
The Scriptures speak pointedly on this ques- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 89 

tion. Jesus said : " Except a man be born from 
■above he can not 'see the kingdom of God. 
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be 
born again." These words plainly indicate the 
need of a radical change ; such a change as we 
have already spoken of ; an inward change 
from alliance with evil to an alliance with good. 
The reason for this may be found in fa6ls 
already stated. We are born into the world 
possessed of a triune nature. The physical 
.and the intellectual will develop by conta<5t 
with earthly environments. These first at- 
tract and naturally absorb our attention. The 
•spiritual, which is the highest and w T hich has 
to do with things unseen, is overlooked and 
neglecSled. All our time and attention are 
•easily consumed in caring for the body and the 
mind in their relation to this world. In the 
mean time, we are the prey to a host of abnor- 
mal appetites, passions and propensities which 
we have inherited from our ancestors, and 
which, being more or less depraved in their 
tendency, make us fit subjecSts for evil influ- 
ences. Without intending it or being aware 
of it, we fall into sinful ways and evil practices 
aintil sin and transgression have shut out God 



90 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

and holy influences. Day by day we become 
more fixed in habit, more enchained with evil,, 
more impressible to baneful influences, until,, 
in the language of Scripture, we are spiritually 
dead; that is, good influences from the spirit 
world have no sway over us. Hence Paul 
speaks of mankind as " dead in tresspasses and 
sins," and " prone to do evil," under the sway 
of their " carnal nature," subjeft to passions 
and propensities which draw them away from 
holiness, happiness and heaven ; and our own 
observation and experience prove that it re- 
quires no special effort to drift into evil ; the 
very current of life floats us thitherward ; but 
it does require a strong and constant effort to« 
do good ; for good lies up-stream and must 
be reached against the current of natural ten- 
dencies. As in the soil weeds grow without 
care or attention while useful grains must be 
cultivated with much patient and persistent 
labor, so in the human heart evil passions and 
propensities thrive without care while the vir- 
tues and the graces grow only under careful 
and diligent culture. 

It happens, therefore, that all men fall into- 
sin, become alienated from God, and go forth 
to transgress the divine law. They are not in 
a condition, while in this state, to reach out 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 9i 

toward a perfe6i manhood, and consequently 
are not in the way that leads to full and com- 
plete happiness. Unless a change is wrought 
within them they cannot enter heaven, because 
heaven cannot enter them. Where sinfulness 
exists heaven cannot be: therefore, no heart 
with sin dwellng in it, can enter heaven; and 
this, too, by the very law of antagonism be- 
tween good and evil. Hence the absolute ne- 
cessity of a radical change to be wrought in 
mankind; a change from the condition of sin- 
fulness into that of righteousness; a complete 
reversal of character; a casting out of all evil 
and the inbringing of all good; such a transi- 
tion as Jesus referred to when he said: " Except 
ye be converted, ye shall not enter the king- 
dom of heaven;" that is, " shall not" because 
ye cannot. The law of condition determines 
the question. Sin, by its very nature, must 
exclude from "the kingdom of heaven;" and, 
as mankind naturally fall into sin, on account of 
the abnormal qualities they inherit from their 
ancestors and the allurements of " the world* 
the flesh, and the devil," and thereby become 
sinners, it follows that they cannot enter 
heaven until a complete, thorough turning 
around or change of internal condition has 



$2 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

taken place within them, which, in Scripture 
term, is called conversion. 

Thus we see how true the declarations of 
Scripture are to the fa<5ts of human life. They 
assert that human happiness depends upon in- 
ward truth and purity, and all human experi- 
ences prove it. They declare that sin and evil 
must be eradicated from the heart before holi- 
ness and good can find a lodgment therein ; 
and daily life verifies it. They assure us that 
•only by taking God and divine influences into 
our souls can we be kept in the way that leads 
to perf e6l manhood ; for " the wages of sin is 
death," as daily observation and experience 
demonstrate. Hence the all-important ques- 
tion rises up before us demanding how sin and 
evil can be eradicated ; how G'»d and divine 
influences can be brought in to possess the 
soul ; how we may be put upon the highway 
that leadeth to perfe6l manhood and to the 
attainment of perfe6l and eternal happiness. 



CHAPTER X. 

FROM WHENCE COMETH SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

©WING to hereditary tendencies, the lack 
of wisdom gained by experience, and the 
absorbing demand of the world and things 
of the world, we naturally fall into sin and 
bondage to evil. With God and holy influences 
shut out, and our spiritual nature under con- 
trol of evil influences, we are in a spiritual 
darkness so dense that Paul calls it " dead in 
trespasses and sins." This does not mean that 
our spiritual nature is dead in fa<5t, but dead 
in that it has no divine life in it; that is, no 
conscious presence of God in it; no spiritual 
communication with pure and heavenly spirits; 
no inflowing of that divine tide of love and 
spiritual power without which there is no eter- 
nal life, and, therefore, no real and true life.. 
There are various grades of life, ascending from 
that of the inse6l that lives for a few hours to 
that which flames eternally around the throne 
of God. Only that which is free from sin and 
imperfection can live eternally. Hence while 



$4 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

we are in bondage to evil we do not possess 
eternal life, and cannot until this bondage is 
broken, all evil cast out, and the divine life 
of God's presence is aftualized within us. How 
is this wonderful change to be brought about? 
'Can we work it out ourselves or is it wrought 
out for us and in us by some power above us? 
To answer these questions intelligently, the 
following fa6ls must be taken into considera- 
tion, viz: First, there is no such thing as spon- 
taneous, or self -generated life, either natural 
or spiritual, on the plane of the finite, at least; 
second, life only can beget life, and that of its 
own kind; and third, one realm of nature has 
no power to impart life to any realm above it. 
These are f a6ls which are now fully recognized, 
after long and patient investigation. The 
question of spontaneous or self-generated life 
has engaged the best minds, and has been 
carried through many patiently-pursued and 
carefully-made experiments. At times an af- 
firmative seemed almost established, but closer 
inspe6lion found an error; and thus the re- 
search has been pushed forward until it is ad- 
mitted that there is no such thing as sponta- 
neous or self-generated life. Neither can 
matter generate life in and of itself alone- 
It may aid in the development of life after 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 95 

the principle of life has been implanted in it, 
bmt it cannot cause or beget life. Matter is 
passive, lifeless, powerless, inoperative aside 
from a life-force or active principle a6ling 
upon it. Even when matter assumes a living 
form, or appears in living organism, it is there 
because of the life-force which has seized upon 
it and appropriated it to life's uses. Life is 
master, matter is servant^ and by no possibility 
can the lesser produce the greater. Life 
must proceed from life. This faft is also ad- 
mitted by scientists. To this must be added 
another equally important fa6l, viz: " That 
like can only beget like." Carried into the 
realm of morals it teaches that evil cannot be- 
get good, nor spiritual darkness produce spirit- 
ual light. 

And this brings us to notice the third prin- 
ciple we have lain down, viz: That one realm 
of nature has no power to impart life to any 
realm above it. Life in each is unique. It 
possesses qualities peculiar which it can nei- 
ther derive from nor impart to another order 
of life, It is distincSl, separate, limited. Plant 
life is distindrt from animal life, and is wholly 
destitute of power to beget animal life. It is 
true, there are some things in common between 
the t\yo; some forces which work alike in each; 



96 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

but the one has no power to originate the- 
other. There are some plants, it is true, like 
insecSt-devouring plants, which seem to posses 
a degree of sensitiveness, a rude instin6l, and 
ability to digest food, but all this is below and 
apart from what constitutes animal life. God 
has drawn an impassable barrier between plant 
and animal, with a thus-far-and-no-farther 
boundary of limitation. 

Equally distin6t and impassable is the line 
drawn between the physical and the intellect- 
ual. Intellect is no outgrowth of matter; it 
is no producSt of mere chemical changes in the 
material brain; for though it resides in the 
physical and works through it, controlling 
many of the fun6tions of physical life, still it 
remains everlastingly true that intellect can 
only be derived from intellect. We see unmis- 
takable indication of this in the daily mani- 
festations of human life. An idiot may have 
a splendid physical organization, while life 
demonstrates that an intellectual child must 
have an intellectual parentage. All our great 
men spring from a markedly intellectual an- 
cestry. Here the law of heredity comes in 
and has full play. The fruit garnered is the 
product of the seed sown. By no possibility 
can the physical beget the intellectual, though. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 97 

it is the servant of the intellect in the uses 
and purposes of active life, and may greatly 
contribute to the efficiency of intellectual 
power. It occupies a realm of lower grade, 
and the unchangeable law is that the lower 
may serve, assist and administer to the higher, 
but may not invade the higher as a causative 
or originating force of life. 

The like law of limitation applies to the in- 
tellectual and to the spiritual. By no possibility 
can intellect beget spirit, or intellectual create 
spiritual life. Spirit must receive from spirit. 
If, then, we are to have begotten a new spirit- 
ual life within us; if our spiritual foes are to 
be cast out and our spiritual friends brought 
in ; if evil is to be eradicated and good en- 
throned, it must be done by some spiritual 
power or agency. As we have seen, neither 
the physical nor t4ie intelle6tual can do it, be- 
cause their work and power lie in lower realms. 
Neither can man's own spiritual nature do it, 
for this is in the bondage of evil, being the serv- 
ant of sin and doing its bidding. If done at 
all, therefore, it must be done by spiritual 
forces and agencies outside of the individual 
himself. And this brings us directly to con- 
sider what forces and agencies are appointed 
for this work. That such forces and agencies 



98 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

exist follows as a logical corollary from the 
intent and purpose of God in the creation of 
man. As the Westminster Catechism defines 
it, " man's chief end is to glorify God, and to 
enjoy Him forever." This chief end can not 
be attained unless man is brought to a perfeft 
manhood, with attributes and characteristics 
in quality like unto those of God himself. 
Hence we have every reason to believe that 
all necessary powers and agencies for this work 
are provided. What are they? 

First is the presence of God with the soul, 
at all times, in all places, under all circum- 
stances. Never for a moment does He with- 
draw that presence. Never does He neglecSl 
or miss an opportunity to make His presence 
felt, or to impress the demands of His right- 
eous law. Under the phase of the Holy Spirit, 
He flashes light down into the soul, revealing 
to it its condition, its need of reformation, its 
ultimate ruin as the servant of evil; or as Jesus 
stated it, reproving the soul "of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of a judgment to come." 
In addition to this are God's holy and heavenly 
messengers, sent out with messages of love 
and mercy, of reproof and entreaty, to " the 
heirs of life." And when these means have 
accomplished their purpose; when they have 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 99 

produced a convi6tion of sinfulness and a long- 
ing for relief, then comes the Christ of God to 
enter into that soul and complete the work of 
salvation. 

And just here we must pause for a brief ex- 
planation. Men admit the work of God as the 
Holy Spirit, convi6ling " the world of sin, and 
of righteousness, and of a judgment to come; " 
they stumble not at the idea of high and holy 
messengers sent of God to assist in training 
and developing human souls for eternity; but 
when we speak of salvation through the recep- 
tion and work of the Christ of God in the soul, 
they hesitate and query and reje6l. Blinded 
by the mistiness of theological teachings, 
prejudiced by the illogical and, sometimes, 
unreasonable theories which have been pro- 
mulgated, they are not in a condition to ap- 
proach this subject dispassionately and to ex- 
amine it calmly. And yet there is really no 
mystery about the Christ of God or about His 
work any more than there is about the Holy 
Spirit and His work. Both are simply and 
purely attitudes of God, adapted to the work 
to be done ; and so we have the Father, the 
Son and the Holy Spirit in the fields of labor, 
but all the same in reality. We look upon this 
universe of worlds and behold amazing exhi- 
bitions of power and we call this power the pow. 



100 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

er of God; we speak of Him as the Creator, the 
Upholder, the Sovereign, just as we find these 
attributes of His Character manifested; but 
no one dreams that in these terms we refer to 
distin6t, separate divinities. So we speak of 
the love of God, the mercy of God, the wisdom 
of God, simply meaning that God manifests 
Himself in such a6ls and attitudes towards the 
children of men as these terms characterize. 
In like manner we speak of the Christ of God 
as that special manifestation of God in the 
soul of man, that divine union of God with 
man, that indwelling, conscious presence of 
God in the heart, which casts out all evil, 
brings in all good, purifies and san6lifies, and 
lifts man's spiritual nature up into the posses- 
sion of that which is pure and heavenly. We 
call this manifestation of God in the work of 
man's salvation, the Christ of God, or the 
Christ, because the Scriptures give this desig- 
nation; and we accept it all the more readily 
because Christ means " The Anointed,'-' a be- 
fitting name to signify that anointing pres- 
ence of God in the soul, by which the soul is 
healed from all disease of sin and endowed 
with the soundness of eternal life. Thus the 
term, Christ of God, or " the Christ," is relieved 
of all mystery, and stands for God in that 
grandest of all divine achievements, the lifting 



HERE AND HERE A FTER. \ 1 

of the human soul out of sin and suffering into 
holiness and the glory of eternal blessedness. 
Thus we find that God Himself takes in 
charge this work of a perfected manhood. 
Where all other resources fail, He comes in 
with special adaption of His own power- 
Down into the darkness of man's sinful, spirit- 
ual nature He sends the light through the 
Holy Spirit. Through the polluted halls of 
the soul "dead in trespasses and sins," He 
walks as the Christ, scattering life and health, 
by driving out all that is evil and making 
possible the inbringing of all that is good. 
He saves most royally, and insures the 
requisite perfect manhood. If any ask why 
He does not prevent the entrance of sin and 
evil at the outset, we simply reply, the ques- 
tion is too deep for us. This much we do 
know: Infinite wisdom did not see best to do 
it. This much we believe: Whatever Infinite 
wisdom does is best. This much we find: It 
is only by an experience of sin and evil that 
we learn to appreciate righteousness and good- 
ness. And so by God's method, when we at- 
tain the perfect manhood, it will be an intelli- 
gent manhood and appreciative ; when we reach 
perfect happiness, it will be a thousand fold 
sweeter because we have known its opposite. 



CHAPTER XL 

HOW ETERNAL LIFE IS COMMUNICATED TO MAN. 

pTOHN, the evangelist, is explicit as to whom 
2J the Christ was and is, and as to what He 
has done and will do. With reference to 
Him he introduces his record of the life and 
teachings of Jesus with these words: "In the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God. All things 
were made by Him and without Him was not 
anything made that hath been made. In Him 
was life; and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in the darkness; and the 
darkness apprehended it not. There came a 
man, sent from God, whose name was John. 
The same came for witness, that he might 
bear witness of the light, that all might be- 
lieve through Him. He was not the light, 
but came that he might bear witness of the 
light. The true light which lighteth every 
man was coming into the world. He was in 
the world, and the world was made by Him, 
and the world knew Him not. He came unto 



HEZE AND HEREAFTER. 103 

His own things, and they that were His own 
received Him not. But as many as received 
Him, to them gave He the right to become 
children of God, even to them that believe on 
His name: which were begotten, not of blood 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." All this is said of the 
Christ of God before the manifestation of 
Himself in the person of Jesus. He was God, 
the maker of all things, the source of life, the 
light of men, but owing to the spiritual dark- 
ness which enveloped the race of mankind, 
men did not apprehend Him, and so " the 
world knew Him not." He came to His own, 
the very beings whom He had created and 
provided for, but these, with here and there 
an exception, did not receive Him; but to 
every one who did receive Him, "even to. 
them who believe on His name" as God, He 
gave the right to become children of God. 
Hence from the very beginning He was in the 
world in the fullness of His saving power; 
but mankind did not apprehend Him; did 
not receive Him; were not enlightened and 
saved by Him; therefore, there was great need 
of a clearer manifestation of His presence; a 
definite and unmistakable revelation of His 
power to dwell in men and with men with 



104 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

ability to save them from sin and all its conse- 
quence; an a<5tual exhibition of the means and 
methods by which mankind can become spirit- 
ual sons and daughters of God and receive 
the crown of everlasting life. And so " the 
Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us> 
full of grace and truth." 

Thus John, the evangelist, tells us who the 
Christ of God is, and for what purpose he was 
especially manifested in the person of Jesus. 
He is the light and life of the world, and 
through Him alone can eternal life be begotten 
in men, but owing to the spiritual darkness 
which has fallen upon the race through evil 
and its consequent sin, the race could not ap- 
prehend Him, therefore coutdnot receive Him^ 
therefore could not inherit eternal life, and 
consequently it became absolutely necessary in 
order that mankind might have the. necessary 
spiritual light and knowledge, that He should 
reveal Himself and His work in and through a 
fleshly body. This would bring the impor- 
tant fa6ls concerning Him down to that hu- 
man level where humanity could apprehend 
and, to some extent, could comprehend; and, at 
the same time, make a manifestation so clear, 
so definite, so unmistakable that men blinded 
by sinfulness could not fail of seeing it. And 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 105 

for this purpose Jesus was raised up under di- 
vine direction, and, at the proper time, " the 
Spirit of God descended upon him," and he 
went forth to exhibit a perfe6t manhood to the 
world; a manhood in which the human and 
the divine united and worked harmoniously 
together. 

Thus the union of the Christ of God with 
Jesus shows us how a perfecSt human life is 
brought about, or the perfection of manhood 
attained, for each and for all who allow this 
union to take place. It is simply the Christ of 
God, the embodiment of light and life, entering 
consciously into union with the human soul, 
and abiding there forever. It was this union 
which changed Jesus into Jesus Christ, and 
enabled him to say truly : " I am the way, the 
truth, and the life:" for he was the expression 
and manifestation of these; and he could say 
farther with equal truthfulness: " No man 
cometh unto the Father, but by me;" for no 
man can come unto the Father, except in the 
precise way in which he came — through a 
union with the Christ of God. He was the em- 
bodiment of that union, and hence could say 
to Philip: " Believest thou not that I am in the 
Father, and the Father in me? the words that 
I say unto you I speak not from myself, but 



106 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the Father abiding in me doeth His works." 
This gives the key to a correct understanding 
of the multiplied expressions of Christ wherein 
He declares that through Him life comes to 
mankind. " I am come that they might have 
life;" "I am the resurrection and the life; 
he that believeth in me, though he were dead,, 
yet shall he live again; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die; " for who- 
soever truly believeth in Him will be thereby 
led to become partaker of the same life He is 
living; and, therefore He could truly say: " I 
am the bread of life; if any man eat of this 
bread, he shall live forever; and the bread 
that I will give is my flesh, which I will give 
for the life of the world;" for He was the true 
manifestation and expression of that life, 
which men could see and could apprehend, and 
thereby be induced to seek it, and thus this 
life could be made practically communicable 
to those " dead in trespasses and sins." 

Thus we learn how eternal life is communi- 
cated unto men. The Christ of God enters in- 
to union with the soul and abides there. Paul 
clearly recognized this fact when, speaking of 
himself, he said " Christ liveth in me; and the 
life which I now live in the flesh, I live by 
faith in the Son of God." Writing to the 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 107 

Corinthians he asked: " Know ye not as to 
your own selves that Christ is in you?" He 
also wrote to the Romans: " Ye are not in the 
flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit 
of God dw T elleth in you. But if any man hath 
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead be- 
cause of sin; but the spirit is life because of 
righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that 
raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you,, 
he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead 
shall quicken also your mortal bodies through 
his spirit that dwelleth in you." It will be 
noticed that Paul used the terms, " Spirit of 
God " and " Spirit of Christ" interchangeably 
as meaning precisely the same thing; that is,, 
as the divine Spirit which unites with and 
dwells in the human soul; and the highest 
wish he had for the Ephesians was that 
" Christ may dwell in them." And so Jesus 
Christ says of Himself and His disiples, " I 
am the vine, ye are are the branches; he that 
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth 
forth much fruit; for apart from me ye can do 
nothing." And again: " If a man love me, 
he will keep my word, and my Father will love 
him, and we will come unto him and make our 
abode with him;" and yet again: "At that 



108 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

day shall ye know that I am in the Father 
and ye in me, and I in yon;" " Holy Father, 
keep through thine own name those whom 
thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we 
are — I in them, and Thou in me, that they may 
be made perfecSt in one." 

Thus we are scripturally taught that spiritual 
life, in its highest and truest sense, is begotten 
within us by the union of the Christ of God 
with our souls, as an indwelling, conscious 
presence; and this scriptural view is undoubt- 
edly the true one. As already stated, a soul in 
bondage to sin and in love with that bondage 
would never purify itself. Neither can the in- 
tellectual or physical reach up into the spirit 
realm to do that work. The only possible hope 
of release from the bondage of sin, and of evil 
being cast out, is through the introduction of 
good with power to expel the evil; and this 
hope finds its realization in the mission of the 
Christ. He comes the embodiment and essence 
of all good, with all spiritual power at His 
command. As such He unites spiritually with 
the human soul, becomes a conscious presence 
there, and by the very law of opposites, where 
He is evil can not be. Hence His indwelling 
must expel all evil. When this union takes 
place in any human soul it is to become, and 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 100 

does become, sooner or later, so perfe6t and 
complete that the human and the divine blend 
into one. Hence Paul could affirm that " if 
any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the 
old things are passed away; behold, they are 
become new." A new element of power and 
of life has entered into him; a new combina- 
tion has been made; the Christ has united with 
his soul and become an abiding, consciously- 
felt presence there; he has been changed from 
a mere man into a Christ-man. Henceforth 
he lives not by himself alone, but with the 
Christ living consciously in him. He lives no 
longer under the sway of evil, but from the in- 
spiration of good. His spiritual nature is 
opened up to pure and heavenly influences. 
He is put in communication with God and lives 
consciously in His presence. He no longer 
seeks his daily bread from earth and the things 
of earth alone, but feeds on spiritual food. 
His life is no longer narrowed by time, but is 
broadened out into eternity. It ceases to be 
finite and stretches out toward the infinite. It 
becomes immortal because it has received into 
it the Christ element which is immortal. And 
thus become verified the words of the Christ: 
V Whosoever iiveth and believeth in me shall 
never die." With the Christ in us we do in- 



110 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

deed become " new creatures;" old things do 
truly pass away; all things do become new, 
even to the extent of oneness with God and 
the certainty of eternal life. 

Just here springs up a host of questions of 
which there are many we can not answer. 
How does the Christ of God enter into the 
soul? How does He unite with the natural 
powers of man? How does He cleanse, purify 
and sanctify the affections? How, in short, 
does He change the natural man into the 
Christ-man? Even Jesus did not attempt to 
answer such questions as these. Nicodemus 
went to him with precisely these questions and 
returned no wiser on these points. Where the 
Great Teacher was silent we may well be ex- 
pefted to be silent. Nor is the answer to these 
questions of any real practical value to us, for 
it is not at all essential in our reception of 
-eternal life. Many things we accept and en- 
joy, of which questions may be asked beyond 
our capability of answer. How the food we 
eat is separated, fitted and fashioned into 
brain, nerve, bone, sinew and muscle is far 
from being plain to us. We simply know the 
fa6t without understanding the process be- 
yond the few hints given us by chemistry; but 
we keep on eating. The fa6ls are a sufficient 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 1 1 1 

"basis for our continued a6lion in supplying the 
body with food. But the fa£t that food does 
build up the various and diverse parts of the 
body is no more clearly proved than is that 
other fa6l of a " new life " begotten of the 
Christ in the soul. If we reje6l the one, we 
may as reasonably reje6l the other. Daily life 
is full of questions we can not answer; but as 
reasonable beings we go on acting upon the 
verity of the unexplained facts. We eat for 
what we know food does for us, though we can 
not explain the process of its doing. We sow 
our grain because we know it will produce a 
harvest, though the process of its growth is 
beyond our solution. Why should we not ac- 
cept spiritual communion with God and eternal 
life at the hands of His Christ? Thousands have 
accepted, and found a new life; new in tastes, 
purposes, desires and aims; nor did the change 
through which they passed prove to be of a 
temporary nature. It was abiding, growing 
more and more marked until lost sight of in 
death. It made the life pure, lovable and 
joyous, and down into the valley of death they 
passed with a shout of triumph. And this life 
the Christ of God stands ready to give unto all. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

YTfHERE is a special limitation to human 
eJjfc knowledge beyond which we can not 
pass. At least, this is true in this life. 
Science can not tell us what life is in its 
essence, whence it came, how it builds up 
physical structure, or how it animates matter; 
and yet we believe in it because we see 
its manifestations. Indeed, on all questions 
science is forced into silence the moment you 
press it with inquiries about the essence and 
inner nature of things. Science knows and 
treats of nothing aside from manifestations, 
deals only with phenomena, attempts to ex- 
plain nothing beyond that, puts its definitions 
in terms of a6tion and qualities, and does this 
in accordance with the fa6l, revealed in the 
Scriptures centuries ago, that "the secret 
things belong unto the Lord our God, but 
those things which are revealed (manifested) 
belong unto us and to our children forever." 
That is, we can know the manifestation, but 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. H3 

not the secret cause back of it; but we can 
know all that is of practical value to us, and 
therewith may well be content. Hence, the 
fa6t that we can not answer all the questions 
that may be asked concerning" the constitution 
causative forces, and secret process of spiritual 
life, ought not to be surprising. It is in exaft 
accord with our pow r er to know other things. 
We can not explain all that is involved in the 
growth of a blade of grass, or in the blossom- 
ing of a flower; neither can we explain all that 
is involved in the institution, development and 
perfection of spiritual life in the soul; but we 
can come as near to it in the one case as we can 
in the other. In both we can learn all that is of 
practical value to us. Millions of men and 
women have testified out of their own personal 
experience of the ingeneration of spiritual life 
through the incoming and indwelling of the 
Christ of God in their souls. Their testimony 
stands on record, verified by their life and 
character. Millions more are giving like testi- 
mony to-day, and substantiating that testimony 
by living proof. This is amplie, convincing* 
decisive. 

There are certain facts concerning the in- 
generation and development of this spiritual 
life worthy of special notice. The first is that 



114 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the beginning of spiritual life in the human 
soul is instantaneous. As the blind man re- 
stored to sight, as recorded in the Bible, could 
only say, u whereas I was blind, now I see," so 
the soul, brought into the possession of spirit- 
ual and eternal life, can only say, " whereas I 
was dead in trespasses and sins, now I live in 
purity and righteousness." The process lead- 
ing up to the critical point of the reception of 
the Christ may be long and varied; but when 
the Christ enters, He enters at once, in all the 
plentitude of His power, and the powers of 
evil depart instantly. The Royal Master comes 
in and assumes sway; the life eternal is im- 
planted and the heart's allegiance to God as- 
sured; but the work of purification, of san6tifi- 
cation, of bringing forth virtues and graces, of 
adjusting the physical and mental into har- 
mony with pure spirituality, of building up 
the whole man in righteousness and holiness, 
of fitting the soul for the attributes of heaven 
here and the enjoyment ot heaven hereafter, 
is carried on gradually through a process of 
elimination and of development. Here, as 
elsewhere, the law of cause and effe6l operates; 
the process of completion requires time; no 
overleaping is allowed; step by step through 
eradication, implanting, growth, development, 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. \ \ 5 

the work is carried forward, thus realizing the 
figure of Scripture, on this very point, which 
is, " First the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear." 

Now, this gradual unfolding and reaching 
out of spiritual life toward perfection does not 
arise from any lack of power on the part of the 
indwelling Christ, nor because He has not 
taken real possession, but because He always 
works according to the established law of God 
and does his work once for all. Passions are 
to be subdued, propensities restrained, tastes 
corrected, desires purified, the whole being 
elevated and fitted for spirit uses. This is a 
work of time and care; such as even divine 
power can not do instantly; for the entire man 
must be brought into subje6lion to the will of 
God. This will of God is very comprehensive. 
It covers thought, word, a6l, desire and feeling. 
Paul understood this when he wrote to the 
Corinthians: "Whether ye eat or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God/' 
He rightly makes the will of God bear upon 
all that concerns our humanity, even the most 
ordinary a6ts of life; for it relates to our 
physical, mental, spiritual, moral, social, politi- 
cal, financial, public and private condufit. To 
fit a soul just resurrected from the death of 



116 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

" trespasses and sins," to obey this will is no 
task of a moment. And then, too, this obedi- 
ence must be genuine, a whole-souled obedi- 
ence. It must find its root in love to God and 
love to man; in a loving desire to do the will 
of God everywhere and at all times. It must 
be such an obedience as Jesus manifested; an 
obedience chara6lerized by spontaneity and an 
absorbing devotion ; and all this is to be brought 
about without violence to any law of our na- 
ture. And so, though the Christ be in the soul 
in all the plentitude of His power, there as a 
Royal Master, still He works under the limita- 
tions of human environments and brings His 
work on toward completion by gradual pro- 
cesses. 

We are not, therefore, to expe6t or to look 
for perfection at once. The unfolding and 
building of a true life is a work requiring time. 
During the process, many crudities will appear 
in the personal character, occasional outcrop- 
ping of old dispositions and inherited tenden- 
cies, outbursts of old passions now and then? 
all growing less until the whole man is sub- 
dued unto righteousness. And so one may 
be only in the process of attaining to a true 
manhood, and may, at a given time, have much 
of defect still lingering in him, but if he is in 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. \ 17 

the process of making, the final accomplish- 
ment is certain. What the Christ undertakes 
will be accomplished. 

We have an example of a perfe6l human life: 
that of Jesus. He met and fulfilled all the re- 
quirements of the law of righteousness, lived 
the embodiment of all the virtues and the 
graces, and was without sin. His perfe6lness 
was not the outcome of his human nature 
alone; it was the result of union existing be- 
tween him and the Christ of God. He ex- 
pressly stated that he could do nothing of 
himself alone; but a6led and spoke as the 
divine spirit within di6lated. Being at one 
with God and filled with the spirit and essence 
of all good, temptation had no power over him, 
because there was no point of weakness in his 
character. As already stated, evil can come in 
only when and where good is absent, and, as 
he was permeated with good, evil found in 
him no vacant place to occupy. As he said of 
himself: " The prince of this world cometh 
and hath nothing in me." He was made 
proof against evil by being full of good. His 
sole purpose, his chief delight, was to do 
the will of God. So absorbed was he in this 
that he said to his disciples, on one occasion, 



1 18 HERE A ND HEREAFTER. 

" my meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
me and to finish His work." 

Now, this life of Jesus is not one beyond the 
reach of others. It is a type, a pattern, to be 
copied; an inspiration to all mankind; an ex- 
ample to be followed by all who desire to be- 
come truly children of God. Of this fa6l 
Jesus himself took cognizance when he said: 
" Follow me." Paul also recognized it when 
he wrote of Him to the Romans as "the first 
born among many brethren;" and again to 
the Hebrews: " For it became Him, for whom 
are all things, and by whom are all things, in 
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the 
captain of their salvation perfect through 
suffering; for both He that sanctifieth and 
they who are sanctified are all of one, for 
which cause He is not ashamed to call them 
brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto 
my brethren." John also sets his testimony to 
this oneness of Jesus with us by saying, "we 
shall be like him," while Jesus settles the 
whole question in his prayer for those who be- 
lieve in him: " That they may all be one: even 
as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that 
they also may be in us." 

We become children of God through His 
Christ entering our hearts and abiding there. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 119 

We are thus filled with the spirit and essence 
of all good and no place is left for evil. The 
Christ within us imparts enlightenment, power 
and a desire to do the will of God, in cultivat- 
ing the virtue and grace of purity, and in 
working righteousness; or as Paul states it, in 
attaining " unto the unity of the faith, and of 
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a per- 
fect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fullness of Christ." This will lead to 
an absorbing desire to do the divine will and 
eventuate in that acme of consecration, spoken 
of by Paul, in which whatever we do, " we 
shall do it to the glory of God," and find our 
life following the same pathway trod by Jesus. 
It will be well for us , just here, to consider 
obedience. One may obey through fear of 
consequences; another selfishly for the good 
it will bring; still another from a stern sense 
of duty; but neither reaches the height of 
that obedience which flows from the heart as 
naturally as the stream from the fountain, or as 
unselfishly as the flower blossoms under stimu- 
lus of sun and shower. Any kind of obedience 
will receive its reward in so far as it meets the 
demands of the law; but that obedience alone 
which flows out of a heart lovingly loyal to 
truth and righteousness will bring the highest 



120 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

good. It is better for the world that men 
should keep God's law through fear or from 
selfishness than not to keep it at all; there is 
something grand and noble in holding one's 
self rigidly to the right from a sense of duty; 
but these are below, vastly below, that obedi- 
ence to the will of God which characterized 
Jesus, and which he sought to beget within his 
disciples: an obedience full of spontaneity and 
of delight growing out of love for the Law- 
giver and a loving acquiescence in the spirit 
and purpose of the law itself. This kind of 
obedience can only be felt in and flow from the 
heart in which the Christ dwells, an abiding 
inspiration. 

That this kind of obedience is essential to 
our becoming truly developed as sons and 
daughters of God is both Scriptural and logi- 
cal. Jesus said: " Not every one that saith 
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king, 
dom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
my Father which is in heaven;" and this 
" will " can not be loyally, truly done, unless 
it is done with the whole heart. But this per- 
fect obedience is no sudden growth, no instan- 
taneous development; it is the outcome of a 
gradual assimilation of the characteristic of 
Jesus, who likened the process unto leaven 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 121 

working in meal, and to the growth of a grain 
of mustard seed. Nor is there any need of 
suddenness in the process of our perfection; 
for there is all of time and all of eternity for 
its completion. It is sufficient to know that 
the work begun is sure of completion, and that 
the chief point of our anxiety is to see that it 
is begun. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WHAT CONSTITUTES ETERNAL LIFE. 

"E have spoken of the spiritual life be- 
gotten by the union of the Christ of 
God with the human soul, and now pro- 
ceed to inquire how that spiritual life produces 
eternal life; for eternal life, we are told, is the 
gift of God through the Christ. What, then, is 
eternal life and how is it brought about? Jesus 
said: "This is life eternal — that they might 
know Thee,the true God, and Jesus Christ whom 
Thou hast sent." And again: " My sheep hear 
my voice, and I know them, and they follow 
me; and I will give unto them eternal life; and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of my hand." Paul said: 
" The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." Eternal life, therefore, means 
eternal existence, and is brought about by the 
Christ of God. Nor is there anything unscien- 
tific in this eternal life, nor in the method by 
which it is brought about On the other hand,, 
science has lately laid an ample foundation for 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. J 

it, and given us the key to all the seeming 
mysteries. Mr. Herbert Spencer, than whom 
no man stands higher in matters appertaining 
to biology, has analysed, with minute care, the 
relations of environment to life, and conclu- 
sively shows that life continues according as 
it keeps in adjustment to its environments. 
This adjustment is what determines the length 
of life. As for instance, man is in direct con- 
tact with earth and air; touched by the forces 
of nature; surrounded by beast, bird, insect 
and humanity : subject to atmospheric changes ; 
nourished by food and drink; affected by the 
various incidents connected with his daily life; 
all of which act and re-act upon him. In bio- 
logical language, so long as he can keep in ad- 
justed correspondence with these environ- 
ments, he lives; that is, so long as he can keep 
up such adjustment as to make all these work 
for his good, or contribute to his health and 
strength, his life will continue; but when he 
falls out of this adjusted correspondence, that 
is, fails to keep himself in living harmony 
with these environments, he dies. Hence Mr. 
Spencer's definition of life is, " The continu- 
ous adjustment of internal relations to exter- 
nal relations," or, " continuous correspondence 
with environments." According to this defi- 



124 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

nition, therefore, life is kept in existence so 
long as it can make its environments contrib- 
ute to its support; but when it fails to do this, 
loss of power, either by accident, disease or 
old age, is the consequence and death the final 
result. 

It is well to notice here that the science of 
b>iology tells us that the higher the order of 
organism in which life resides, the more com- 
plex its parts and the more outreaching its 
grasp of power, the longer will that life con- 
tinue. This fa<5t is abundantly verified by 
the study of animal structure. The simplest 
organism is found among animalcules and the 
animating life continues from a few hours to 
a few days. Ascending to more definite and 
complex structures we find the length of life 
correspondingly increasing, until it culmi- 
nates in the order of mammals. The reason 
for this is, that with increased perfection of 
organic structure there is corresponding in- 
crease in the power of adjustment to the 
•changes of environment. With the advent of 
intellect this power of adjustment culminates, 
finding its highest development in the highest 
order of intelligence. Hence with a suffi- 
ciently high order of intelligence we can 
easily suppose a continuous adjustment for- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 125 

ever, or an eternal correspondence with envi- 
ronments. Speaking on this point Mr. Spen- 
cer says: " Per feci: correspondence would be 
perfect life; and were there no changes in the 
environments but such as the organism had 
adapted changes to meet, and were it never to 
fail in the efficiency with which to meet them, 
there would be eternal existence and eternal 
knowledge," or eternal life. In order, there- 
fore, to live forever it is only necessary for us 
to have the power and the wisdom with which 
to keep up our adjustment with our environ- 
ments forever. This is the testimony of 
science, which corroborates the testimony of 
Jesus who said: " This is life eternal, that they 
may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom Thou hast sent." And again: 
" If a man love me he will keep my words, and 
my Father will love him, and we will come unto 
him, and make our abode with him." Life 
eternal is to know God; to abide with God is 
to be in correspondence with Him; to corre- 
spond with God is to correspond with aperfecl; 
and unchanging environment; therefore, when 
man attains unto this knowledge of and cor- 
respondence with God, by the very nature and 
conditions of his relations, he must live for- 



126 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

•ever; for here is adjustment to eternal exist- 
ence and eternal knowledge. 

How, then, are we brought into this knowl- 
edge of and correspondence with God? The 
answer is to be found in the teachings of Jesus 
and the work of the Christ of God dwelling in 
him. By nature man is possessed of that only 
which he received from his ancestors, and, by 
the law of heredity, is abnormal in tastes, ap- 
petites, desires or propensities, and, therefore, 
out of harmony or correspondence with his 
environments. Especially is this true of him 
morally and spiritually. Entangled in the 
meshes of sin and transgressions, by a strange 
but inborn tendency he goes forth sowing evil 
and reaping a harvest of disease and pain. 
Out of harmony, more or less, with his environ- 
ments, and unable to adjust himself to their 
changes, the very things which ought to work 
for his good become destructive to life and the 
sure allies of death. He is thus constantly 
subjecSt to disease and liable, at any moment, 
to drop out of existence. And this is true of 
him physically, intellectually and spiritually: 
for " the wages of sin is death," and he is a sin- 
ner. He violates the law of his being, more or 
less, in each department of his nature, and the 
violated law can only bring ruin and destruc- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 1 27 

lion. The only possible way of escape for 
liim is through a radical transformation, which 
shall bring him to a normal condition and put 
him in correspondence with his environments. 
And this is precisely the work of the Christ of 
God. He comes into union with the human 
soul to correct its tastes, appetites, passions, 
desires and propensities; He cleanses, purifies 
and sanctifies the affections; He uproots evil 
within and sows the seed of every grace and 
virtue; He brings the whole being into har- 
mony with God and with God's law; in short, 
He adjusts the man to his surroundings, 
puts him into correspondence with his environ- 
ments, morally and spiritually; and thus He 
brings about the very conditions of true and 
continued living. And so in union with the 
Christ is true life restored to him who out of 
the Christ was in the throes of death; and so 
long as this union exists man must live, be. 
-cause in him the conditions of life will be 
fulfilled. 

But it may be objected that all men do die, 
physically at least, whereas this theory ought 
to make them live forever. This objection is 
more specious than real. The Christ will not 
abrogate or over-ride any of God's laws in any- 
thing He may do; and it is a law of God that 



128 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

crude matter shall only temporarily be used in 
living organism. After having served its pur- 
pose and done its work in an organism, it must 
be disintegrated and go back into the labora- 
tory of earth. This law is universal, applying 
equally to plant and animal structure. Hence 
on earth all plants and animals die. Their 
physical bodies go back to earth from which 
they were taken. In organization, matter 
quickly exhausts its power of usefulness and 
is then thrown off. This is especially true of 
the human body, where this process of using 
up and throwing off is constantly going on. 
Physiology tells that once in seven years the 
entire structure of our body is made over anew. 
Some parts are renewed every few days; other 
parts take months for the change; other parts 
still require years for the work of renewal; the 
time for each depending upon the intensity of 
a6lion to which the part is subjected; and this 
goes on until even the power of reconstruction 
is exhausted by years and death then ensues. 
Hence physical death is inevitable. If we do 
not die, by disease or accident, we must die 
with old age. Physically we are children of 
earth and must return to her bosom. This is 
the universal law; and hence, life could not be 
continued in these physical bodies without re- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. ~' 129 

versal of one of God's established laws. The 
Christ of God is not sent for any such work of 
reversal. His work is in harmony with law, 
" one jot or tittle " of which can not fail, but all 
must be rigidly and exa6tly fulfilled. But out 
of this law of decay, we shall find farther on, a 
most wonderful provision for the necessities 
of eternal life. 

Another fa6l is worthy of consideration; and 
that is, this earth itself is growing old; its life 
qualities are waning; and, as naturalists affirm, 
the hour will strike on the clock of time when 
earth itself shall be locked in the silence of 
death, or fall into the sun and be consumed. 
Peter, in his epistle, speaking of the earth's 
future, says: " The heavens and earth which 
now are — are kept in store, reserved unto fire 
against the day of judgment and perdition of 
ungodly men; " for, " the day of the Lord will 
come as a thief in the night, in which the 
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the 
earth also and the works that are therein shall 
be burned up." Thus both science and revela- 
tion agree in declaring that matter in organism, 
whether in the earth's structure or on its 
bosom, is temporary and not designed for 
eternal uses. Hence earth is not capable of 



130 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

furnishing an eternal abode for man, and, as 
these gross physical bodies are only fitted for 
earth, the time would come, even if we were 
to live on here, when these bodies would be 
useless. We are not, therefore, to expecSt 
eternal existence on earth nor in these gross 
bodies which are " of the earth earthy;" but 
it is more than possible that in this gross mat- 
ter adhere qualities or elements which are 
eternal, out of which physical bodies may be 
constructed for us possessing all the requisites 
for an eternal existence. It may be possible also 
that this construction is now going on daily 
within us, according to a law of divine chem- 
istry of which we know little. We know that 
matter can be refined and purified until it 
reaches a point of incorruptibility; and that at 
this point it attains such a degree of tenuity 
as to escape cognizance by any of our present 
senses. We know also that this process of 
bringing matter into organism in connection 
with life is a refining process, or rather an 
eliminating process by which out of crude 
matter is eliminated that which is needed for 
the higher orders and uses of life. This is the 
law by which food is prepared for mankind; 
crude matter made to pass through successive 
changes until it becomes adapted to building 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 131 

bone and sinew, and the more delicate struc- 
tures of tissues, nerves and brain. These 
fa6ls fully warrant us in the belief that like 
provisions are made for our spiritual bodies. 
Matter refined to the point of incorruptibility 
will meet all the requirements of the case; for 
bodies made out of this material would be as 
subtle as ether, as penetrating as attraction, 
and as imperishable as divine wisdom and skill 
could make. And Paul assures us that we are 
to have such bodies, incorruptible and immor- 
tal, which can come into correspondence with 
things everlasting and, therefore, can exist 
forever. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HOW ETERNAL EXISTENCE IS MADE A FACT. 

■■ X I /HIS is eternal life, that they may know 
^\(s) Thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom Thou hast sent." To 
know God, as here meant, is to be in corre- 
spondence with Him, as an environment, or as 
the Scriptures put it, " in Him to live and move 
and have our being." If we are thus in corre- 
spondence with God as an environment we 
shall be in correspondence with an environ- 
ment that is eternal and unchangeable — " the 
same to-day, yesterday and forever." This 
would require on our part the quality of ever- 
lastingness; for it is a law of nature that like 
only can correspond with like; that is, mind 
only can correspond with mind, spirit with 
spirit, and matter with matter. Hence that 
which corresponds with that which is eternal 
must possess qualities of the eternal, and be, 
therefore, everlasting. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. *" 133 

Let us apply this principle to the inheritance 
of everlasting life. If we are to be brought 
into correspondence with God, or to be enabled 
to apprehend Him, we must have within us an 
element of the divine as a medium through 
which this correspondence and apprehension 
can take place: By nature we are lacking in 
this necessary medium of communication; or 
as Paul wrote to the Corinthians : " The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God; and he can not know them, be- 
cause they are spiritually examined," or only 
ascertainable through the spirit, the very part 
which is blinded and fettered by sin in the 
natural man. Hence the mission of the Christ. 
He enters into union with the human soul, be- 
comes to it this divine element, and thus en- 
ables it to enter into correspondence with God. 
And then, as this Christ of God is everlasting, 
when He enters into union with the human 
soul, joined in an inseparable and enduring 
bond with it, He becomes to that soul the ele- 
ment of everlastingness and lifts it to the plane 
of the eternal. As He said to the disciples of 
Jesus, those into whom He had thus entered- 
" Because I live, ye shall live also;" and 
logically we may regard Him as adding : u So 
long as I live, ye shall live also." Paul under- 



134 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

standing this truth wrote to the Corinthians : 
"In the Christ shall all be made alive." 

Thus through the Christ dwelling in us we 
are enabled to know God; therefore, to cor- 
respond with God; therefore, to attain unto 
the condition of eternal life. And this cor- 
respondence with God is to be full and com- 
plete, as Jesus prayed for those who should 
believe in him: " San6tify them through thy 
truth — that they may all be one, even as Thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also 
may be in us." This would make the corre- 
spondence of these disciples with God abs- 
olutely perfect, complete, eternal, and thus 
fulfill, to the very letter, Mr. Herbert Spencer's 
definition of eternal life, viz: "Were there no 
changes in the environments but such as the 
organism had adapted changes to meet, and 
were it never to fail in the efficiency with 
which it met them, there would be eternal ex- 
istence and eternal knowledge;" for they 
would be in correspondence with unchangea- 
ble environment on the outside and assisted 
by an omnipotent adjuster on the inside; and 
hence there would be no changes in environ- 
ments that could not be met, nor any failure 
in efficiency with which to meet them. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 135 

Thus in the light of science there is nothing- 
unreasonable in the Christian's hope of eternal 
life. Indeed, that hope, according to Mr- 
Spencer, becomes a certainty; for the Christ 
of God which enters into union with the soul 
and abides there, is eternal and eternally in 
correspondence with the Father, and hence 
will keep the soul eternally in correspondence 
with God, and thus fulfill all the requirements 
of. Mr. Spencer's definition of eternal life. No 
wonder, therefore, that Paul triumphantly 
asked: " Who shall separate us from the love 
of the Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or 
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, 
or sword ? Nay, in all these things we are 
more than conquerors through Him that loved 
us. For I am persuaded that neither death 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
shall be able to separate us from the love of 
God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." That 
is, there is nothing above or below, in the flesh 
or out of it, in this world or in the next, that 
can interrupt or destroy this correspondence 
of the soul with God through the Christ 
Hence Paul could well shout, and every one 
who has become a son or daughter of God by 



136 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

heart-union with the Christ, may join with 
him: "Death is swallowed tip in victory. O 
grave, where is thy vi6lory! O death, where 
is thy sting! The sting of death is sin; and 
the power of sin is the law ; but thanks to God 
which giveth us the vi6lory through our Lord, 
Jesus Christ." 

Obje6tion to this theory of eternal life may 
be made on the ground that it is speculative 
and without positive proof; that it deals with 
that which is spiritual, intangible and unseen; 
and, therefore, that it carries with it no relia- 
ble data or authority which the scientist is 
bound to respe6l. To those making this ob- 
jection the declarations of Scripture would 
carry no weight, because what the Scriptures 
assert is the very thing which they deny and 
for which they demand positive proof. To 
convince such, therefore, we must go outside 
of Scripture, and seek for proof that conforms 
to scientific methods of reasoning. Can such 
proof be found ? At least, is there proof bear- 
ing sufficient of this scientific chara6ter to 
warrant mankind in hanging a hopeful belief 
thereon ? If we cannot find positive proof, 
perhaps we can find proof bearing sufficient of 
moral certainty to produce convi6lion of the 
reality of eternal life through the Christ. 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 137 

At first thought, this theory of eternal life 
-would seem to take us out of the sphere of the 
natural up into that of the supernatural, of 
which we can know nothing certainly nor 
predicate anything definitely; but on closer 
examination we find it not so; for the life 
eternal which comes to us through the Christ 
is in the realm of the natural. Nature is what 
God has established in His universe of matter, 
mind and spirit; and every law that rules and 
•operates in either of these is a natural law- 
In fact, there is nothing supernatural only as 
it is viewed relatively. The realm of the 
spiritual is as natural as the realm of the ma- 
terial; and the laws which rule in the one are 
as natural as those which rule in the other; for 
it takes the entire universe of God, embracing 
the seen and the unseen, the tangible and the 
intangible, to constitute the totality of nature. 
But in this totality are grades of qualities, 
■characteristics and attributes. As one grade 
is higher and superior to another it is usually 
said to be supernatural to it; but this super- 
naturality is that of relativity. In this sense 
mind is supernatural to matter, plant to min- 
eral, mineral to uncrystalized dirt, and spirit 
to both mind and matter. All these are within 
the realm of nature as a totality, though sepa- 



138 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

rated from each other by distin6t and unchang- 
ing lines of demarkation. Each has a sub- 
realm of its own, in which it is superior to all 
below it, and inferior to all above it. By no 
possibility can the lower push itself up into 
the realms of the higher, but the higher can 
reach down and lift up the lower into its own 
realm for purposes of use. Thus the mineral 
has no power to change itself into a plant, but 
plant life can reach down, seize upon mineral 
substance and incorporate it into plant or- 
ganism. By this means mineral substance 
which has no power in and of itself to come 
into correspondence with organic life, can be 
lifted into such correspondence; and thus the 
mineral is put into environments which it did 
not have before and never could have had in 
and of itself alone. But in doing this no 
natural law is violated; no principle of nature 
trampled upon, for all this is done in stri6l 
accordance with natural law. Such lifting 
processes are common occurences in this world ; 
in fa6l, appear in all organized life where mat- 
ter is used for organism; and the same pro- 
cess of lifting and of appropriating undoubt- 
edly runs through all the realms of life. We 
know it takes place in animal as well as in 
plant life, and have every reason to believe it 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 139' 

extends up to spirit life also. Paul asserts that 
it does, as appears in his masterly argument 
on the resurrection, and all the sacred writers 
fully accord with him in the recognition of 
this truth. 

Here, then, we find a basis of moral cer- 
tainty upon which to rest our theory of eter- 
nal life. The Christ of God lifts the entire 
man up to the plane of the eternal and puts 
him in correspondence with eternal things. Oc- 
cupying the supreme realm of nature, He is 
superior to all others and can lift them into 
such uses as His wisdom and mercy may deem 
best; and His best thought for us is eternal 
life; " for God so loved the world, that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believ- 
eth in Him should not perish, but have eternal 
life." Nor in this is there anything contra- 
dictory to the teachings of science; for life 
force seizes upon the mineral and lifts it up 
into correspondence with organic life; the 
Christ enters into union with the human 
soul and lifts it into correspondence with God 
and things eternal; if the one is admitted 
to be scientific, there is no possible reason for 
calling the other unscientific. In the one 
there is as much of mystery as in the other. 
Both are done by the established law of God, 



140 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

As we fully believe in the one so may we fully 
believe in the other, and adopt the words of 
Paul, with a slight change: " For this cause I 
bow my knees unto the Father, from whom 
every family in heaven and in earth is named* 
that He would grant us, according to the riches 
of His glory, that we may be strengthened 
with power through His Spirit in the inward 
man; that the Christ may dwell in our hearts 
through faith; to the end that we, being rooted 
and grounded in love, may be strong to appre- 
hend with all the saints what is the breadth 
and length and height and depth, and to know 
the love of the Christ which passeth knowledge 
that we may be filled unto all the fullness of 
God." 



CHAPTER XV. 

WHY THESE PRESENT BODIES CAN NOT BE IM- 
MORTAL. 

'AN is triune, a combination of the physi- 
cal, the intellectual, and the spiritual, 
though each of these has its separate, 
distin6t, sharply-defined realm. The order 
of ascent is from the physical to the intel- 
lectual, then to the spiritual, and each higher 
may be said to be supernatural to the lower ; 
for while the lower is utterly incapable of 
pushing itself up into the higher, the higher 
has power to reach down into the lower, seize 
upon its constituent elements and lift them up 
into organisms which the higher needs for its 
purposes. This is the law of union between 
the higher and the lower; the law by which the 
trinity of our being is rendered possible; intel- 
lect lifting up and controlling matter, and 
spirit lifting up and controlling both. By this 
law, when the Christ of God, with the essence 
and power of eternal life, enters the human 
soul and adds His efficiency to the ordinary 



142 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

spiritual power of the man, it becomes possi- 
ble for the entire man to be lifted into an or- 
ganism fitted for the spirit realm of eternal 
life. Indeed, this must be done if the Christ 
is to dwell in that heart forever. And then 
we are to bear in mind that the continuance 
of an organism depends upon the higher which 
constituted it; that it is only a servant to do 
the will of its maker; and hence that so long 
as the higher power can or does hold its grip 
upon the organism it has constituted, so long 
that organism will continue to exist. Apply 
this fa6t to the case in hand, and we find that 
as the Christ of God is eternal, possessed with 
the attributes of omniscience and omnipotence^ 
He can hold an eternal and all-powerful grip 
upon the triune being, the human soul which 
He has entered and is fitting for the spirit life; 
and that thus the eternal existence of that soul 
is assured. And all this is done without any 
violence to natural law, or any stepping aside 
from scientific methods, or any operation be- 
yond the reach of scientific belief. 

It must be admitted that there are some 
things — many things — concerning this fitting 
of our triune being for an immortal existence 
which we can not explain; but this is no reason 
why we should reje6l the fa6l. All around us, 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 143 

in plant and animal organism, are many things 
we can not explain, but we accept them never- 
theless. Our knowledge is limited to fa6ls, 
and therewith we must be content. The mo- 
ment we go out to inquire into the whys and 
wherefores and hows of God's operation in 
nature, we enter the region of mystery and 
find our way effectually closed up. Our keen- 
est research can not penetrate beyond phe- 
nomena, and the field of our knowledge is 
limited to manifestation. All our scientific 
definitions are in terms of manifestation. They 
tell what a force, power or principle does, not 
what it is in itself, aside from acrtion; of its 
operations and not of its essence. " The secret 
things belong unto the Lord our God, but those 
things which are revealed belong unto us and 
to our children forever, that we may do all the 
words of this law," wrote the inspired penman 
thousands of years ago; and the limit of human 
knowledge has not changed one iota since that 
day. By the phenomena of manifestation we 
learn of the forces, principles and laws of na- 
ture, and in no other way. So, by the phe- 
nomena of manifestation we learn what the 
Christ does for and in the human soul. This 
knowledge may suffice; it is all that can be of 
any practical benefit to us; it is as much as we 



144 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

are permitted to know of anything with which 
we come in conta6l; it answers and fully meets 
all the demands of our necessities. 

Here, then, we may rest our belief in eternal 
life; it is as reasonable and as clearly within 
the limits of scientific belief as any fa6l in 
nature. Nay more: the very process of fitting: 
man for eternal existence conforms to all the 
demands of scientific method. It is all natu- 
ral, and only relatively supernatural, just as the 
organization of a plant is natural, though rela- 
tively the plant life is supernatural to the min- 
eral substance it incorporates in its organism. 
Nature is comprehensive. It reaches from the 
smallest dust of matter up to the grandest 
creation of God. It embraces the universe and 
all there is in it. All is one harmony, one 
unbroken chain of link in link, one sublime 
cosmos; and yet we must remember that this 
cosmos is arranged on an ascending scale of 
realm above realm, distincSt and yet united for 
a purpose; that one realm is superior to and,, 
therefore, may be said to be supernatural to 
another; and that the scientist becomes un- 
scientific when he attempts to limit the opera- 
tions of the higher by the laws of the lower, 
or to define spirit in terms of matter. Each 
realm has its own laws; and while it is true 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 145 

that a similarity characterizes the laws in all 
realms, so that the lower may be called a pro- 
totype of the higher, the prototype is only a 
dim foreshadowing and vastly below that 
which it foreshadows. A taper may prototype 
the sun, but he would show himself a simple- 
ton who should insist on limiting all possible 
force of the sun by that of the taper. 

Just here this inquiry may arise: If the 
higher can lift up the lower 'and incorporate 
that lower into an organism with itself; if the 
continuance of the organism thus constructed 
depends upon the higher and not upon the 
lower, and if the Christ of God comes into 
the human soul in the fulness of divine 
power and imparts unto that soul eternal 
life, by lifting body, mind and spirit into an 
eternal organism, why does not this render 
man immortal in this earth-life and prevent 
that process of disintegration and decay which 
we call, death? The answer of this is two- 
fold. First, the Christ does not and will not 
over-ride a law established by divine wisdom. 
He works to fulfill law, not to destroy it, and 
the law for all organism created out of crude- 
matter is eventual disintegration and decay. 
Hence He could not cause these present bodies 
of ours to live forever without doing violence 



146 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

to established law. Nay more: He could not 
lift these present bodies into immortal life 
without violating the very conditions of ever- 
lasting life; for everlasting existence can be 
possible only through an everlasting corre- 
spondence with everlasting things; but these 
gross bodies of ours are made for correspond- 
ence with things subje6l to change and decay. 
Physically we are composed of gross matter 
lifted into organism by the force of animal 
life, and this organism is designed to corre- 
spond with the gross matter of earth, with 
which we have much to do while here in the 
flesh. Here our environments are of the earth 
earthy, and our bodies are constantly under- 
going change. Every breath, every pulse-beat, 
every thought uses up a portion of bodily mat- 
ter, which must be supplied again; and one of 
the chief occupations of bodily force is to cast 
out the worn-out particles of matter and to 
bring in new and fresh matter to make good 
the waste. Thus physically we are dying and 
living anew at every moment of our earthly 
existence. If at any point of our earthly 
•career, the dying exceeds the living supply, we 
begin to sink toward the tomb; and when the 
excess of dying becomes sufficiently great life 
on earth ceases, and "dust to dust " is the sen- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 147 

tence pronounced upon these physical struc- 
tures. 

Physical life and death, therefore, on earth 
are a mere matter of waste and supply; and 
since the supply comes from the changing, un- 
certain matter of earth, physical life itself is 
uncertain. Famine, war, pestilence, accident, 
disease may cut it off; or, if we escape all these, 
and could thus insure for us unnumbered years 
on earth, there till remains the probability 
that earth itself will eventually become unin- 
habitable. Scientists tell us that this will 
most certainly be the case, unless the earth 
falls into the sun and is consumed. But aside 
from this contingency, careful inspection can 
not fail in convincing us that these bodies, in 
their present condition, were not designed even 
for prolonged existence on earth. They bear 
too strongly the impress of the law of this 
world which is, first life, then death, for all 
material structures. Nowhere do we get even 
a hint of everlastingness in gross material 
forms. Wherever they appear, at once is seen 
the contest between life and death, with the 
certainty that the latter will win the final 
vi6lory. 

This leads us to consider the second reason 
why the gift of eternal life through the Christ 



148 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

in the soul does not impart unending existence 
to these bodies of ours, here on this earth- 
It is that to live forever, as we have seen, is to 
be in correspondence with eternal things; and 
eternal things are spiritual, chief of which is 
God Himself. No organism, therefore, can ex- 
ist forever unless thoroughly and fully spirit- 
ualized; that is, made fit for spirit uses. 
Hence in order to live forever in our triune 
being we must be adapted, body, mind and 
spirit to spirit uses, and it needs no argument 
to show that our present bodies have not this 
adaptation. They are adapted to earth, to 
gross material environments, and not to the 
spirit world and spiritual environments. If 
we could take them with us into the spirit 
realm they would be worse than useless, a clog 
and a burden. They are designed for time and 
not for eternity. Having served their purpose 
we shall want them no longer, and rejoice to 
be rid of them. They are like our houses, 
implements of labor and household comforts 
which are very essential in this life, but which 
no one expe6ts to carry with him into the 
other life. Even in this life we are, more or 
less, weighted down with the burdens of flesh, 
circumscribed and fettered by the limitations 
of gross matter, filled with desires we can not 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 149 

gratify, tormented with aspirations we can not 
realize, swept by temptations we cannot resist, 
dissapointed, chaffed, annoyed, overwhelmed 
and bereaved, — at best, living only cramped, 
repressed, dwarfed lives. Why should we de- 
sire to continue all this if there is something 
better awaiting? Why stay in the flesh if out 
of it there is freedom and progress and de- 
velopment immeasurably beyond what this 
fleshly life can give? 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE GROWTH OF A PERFECT MANHOOD. 

"HILE it is true that these grosser bodies 
which are of the earth earthy, are not 
immortal and were never designed to 
be, yet it is also true that out of these bodies 
will be gathered the material, refined and puri- 
fied, of which immortal bodies for us will be 
made. Matter in its essence is eternal; matter 
refined and purified is incorruptible; hence 
bodies composed of matter refined and puri- 
fied will possess all the essentials for immor- 
tality. They can be put in correspondence 
with things which are eternal, and thus enter 
upon an eternity of existence. And this 
is what Paul set forth in his wonderful dis- 
cussion of death and the resurreftion, in his 
epistle to the Corinthians. He asked, " How 
are the dead raised, arid with what manner of 
body do they come? " The answer he gives is 
worthy of special study: " That which thou 
thyself sowest is not quickened except it die; 
and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 151 

the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may 
chance of wheat or of some other kind; but God 
giveth it a body, even as it pleased Him, and 
to each seed a body of its own." " It is sown 
in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is 
sowm in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is 
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is 
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
body. If there is a natural body, there is also 
a spiritual body." " Howbeit that is not first 
which is spiritual, but that which is natu- 
ral; then that which is spiritual. The first 
man is of the earth, earthy; the second man 
is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they 
also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly,, 
such are they also that are heavenly. And as 
we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 

In all this, Paul clearly indicates that this 
life physically as well as spiritually is the seed 
time for the life to come. Physically it 
gathers up and prepares the material for the 
body we are to have hereafter, so that as surely 
as we have borne bodies fitted for earth, we 
shall also bear bodies fitted for heaven. In 
accordance with this fact, and of bodily 
presence in the spirit world, Jesus said unto 
his disciples: " In my Father's house are many 



152 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

mansions; if it were not so, I would have told 
you; for I go to prepare a place for you; " and 
all the teachings of the Great Master were in 
harmony with this. We are to be in the other 
life with bodily presence, still united to mind 
and spirit. And when we enter into these 
mansions, an immortal trinity, we shall begin 
to understand more fully what Paul meant 
when he broke forth in rhapsody over the 
things which God hath in reserve for those 
who love Him, saying: " Things wiiich eye saw 
not, and ear heard not, and which entered not 
into the heart of man, whatsoever things God 
prepared for them that love him." 

Thus we find sufficient reason why we are to 
inhabit these grosser bodies of earth only tem- 
porarily, and sufficient evidence to believe that 
out of these gross bodies, refined and purified 
bodies will be evolved, for the uses of spirit 
life, capable of corresponding with eternal 
things and fitted for an eternal existence. 
The trinity of this life will continue in the life 
to come, and the only changes in that eternal 
existence will be tow T ard perfe6lion. Be it 
understood, however, that we are here speak- 
ing of those who inherit eternal life through 
the Christ of God. Of those who do not thus 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 153 

inherit eternal life will be spoken in a subse- 
quent chapter. 

The culmination of eternal life must be per- 
fection; but we have no reason to expecSt that 
any will reach perfection at once or suddenly, 
either in this life or in the life to come. Such 
is not the method of nature or of grace. Life 
everywhere begins comparatively small and 
goes forward into development of strength and 
power by the law of progress. Jesus likened 
it to the growth of a mustard seed outwardly 
and to the working of leaven in meal inwardly. 
It is true that when the Christ enters into 
nnion with the human soul to lift that soul 
into correspondence with God and things 
eternal, and thereby into eternal life, He enters 
in the plentitude of his power; but He works 
in obedience to law. He finds that soul im- 
pure, with base desires, riotous passions, wilful 
propensities, unholy appetites and a long list 
of wrong things to be righted, of bad habits to 
l)e corrected, of evil tendencies to be eradi- 
cated, before that soul can be put into full, 
complete, uninterrupted correspondence with 
the eternal purities of God and His kingdom; 
hut without this correspondence eternal exist- 
vence is impossible. Hence here is an essential 
work to be done; a work which can not be done 



154 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

in a day, or a year, and sometimes not wholly 
within a life-time; and yet it must be done, 
and so done as to be thorough, complete and 
everlasting. So thoroughly and completely 
must the Christ work in the soul as to change 
its tastes, tendencies, desires, purposes into a 
love for and harmony with purity, righteous- 
ness and holiness; a change so radical as to be 
everlasting. In other words, it is building up 
for eternity a stalwart character, a divine man- 
hood, a perf e6t man according to " the measure 
of the stature of the fullness of the Christ." 
This can be no work of a moment, no sudden 
or miraculous consummation, but a growth re- 
quiring time and proper influences. Jesus re- 
peated this fa6l over and over again with 
striking illustrations. The law of cause and 
effe6t through a developing progress works 
here as elsewhere; and no human mind can 
foretell when or where this work of the Christ 
will be fully completed. It is enough to know 
that He who undertakes it is able to complete 
it, and is under the bonds of a pledge, for its 
fulfillment, which will be observed and carried 
out to the very letter. 

There are some things about the growth of 
this perf e6l manhood which we will do well to 
consider; there is much about it we can not 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 155- 

explain. The first important fa6l is that it is 
the produ6l of the Christ in the soul. No 
power resides in us by nature to develop and 
to perfe6l this manhood alone, though we have 
an important and essential part to perform in 
the matter. As the child grows by the power 
of life within, and yet may aid or hinder that 
growth by diet, by exercise and by personal 
habits, so the heir of eternal life grows by the 
force of the Christ within, and yet may aid or 
hinder that growth by doing or failing to do 
the will of God. We can no more explain the 
one than we can the other. Both have ele- 
ments of mystery. We can only witness the 
unfolding and learn something of the causes, 
while there are secrets about it that we can 
not penetrate. Jesus pointed to the lily grow- 
ing under his Father's care and assured those 
who believed in him that they should grow 
under the same care. And if we are of that 
number, this care will be over us through 
eternity as well as through time. Hence we 
apply the words of Jesus to the whole of life, 
both here and hereafter : " Therefore take no 
thought saying, what shall we eat? or, what 
shall we drink? or, where withal shall we be 
clothed? for your heavenly Father knoweth 
that ye have need of all these things. But 



156 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

seek ye first the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness; and all these things shall be 
added unto you." 

Paul speaking to the Philippian Christians, 
said: " It is God which worketh in you, both to 
will and to do of His good pleasure," and yet 
he charged them to work out " their own sal- 
vation with fear and trembling." God would 
certainly do His part; they were to be exceed- 
ingly careful that they did their part. To the 
Hebrews Paul wrote : " Now the God of peace 
.... make you perf eft in every good work 
to do His will, working in you that which is 
well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus 
Christ." These passages show that the inspi- 
ration of Christian aftivity comes through the 
Christ of God in the soul, but that all the prac- 
ticality is on the part of man. By no means 
can man ingenerate eternal life in his own 
soul, or by his own unaided efforts build up a 
perfe6l manhood; but he can accept the prof- 
fered union of the Christ, and thus strength- 
ened and equipped the work can be easily and 
certainly accomplished. Paul said that eternal 
life is the "gift of God;" Jesus said: "Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven : " 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 157 

and again: " If thou wilt enter into life, 
keep the commandments; " and yet again: " If 
ye continue in my word then are ye my disci- 
ples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and 
the truth shall make you free." All this im- 
plies a gradual process as of corn; "first the 
blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in 
the ear;" or as Paul expressed it, "grow up 
into Him in all things." It also implies that 
this perfect manhood is not the product of the 
Christ alone nor of the man alone, but of the 
two working together. Without the Christ we 
" can do nothing," as Jesus taught his disci- 
ples; without our consent and cooperation the 
Christ can do nothing in us. God moves first, 
we respond second, and from that point on 
both work together. The lily bulb bursts into 
life through the influence of sun and shower 
and soil, but the lily grows by incorporating 
into stalk and leaf and blossom that which sun 
and shower and soil bring to it. The lesson 
taught us is too plain to be mistaken. If the 
Christ be within us, we shall grow into perfec- 
tion like the lily by using rightly that which 
the Christ brings to us. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

WILL ALL MEN ACCEPT OF THE CHRIST ? 

/9TINCE the perfecting work of eternal life 
4(9) in the soul is carried forward by a gradual 
process of elimination and purification, 
we have no occasion for criticising censori- 
ously the flaws in character or defecSts in 
practice of those who have received the Christ 
into their souls. Proof of their sincerity, or 
of the real beginning and working of eternal 
life, is not in perfection, but in the evidences 
that the perfecting work is going on. It is 
enough to know of any man that he is a saint 
in process of making; for the proces^ begun 
is sure of completion. The Christ in the soul 
is the guaranty of a completed harmony or 
correspondence between that soul and its ever- 
lasting environments. The only point of 
anxiety is to know that the work has been 
begun; for this assured, the rest follows as a 
certainty. Nor is there need of haste, since 
the work should be carried forward no faster 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 159 

than it can be thoroughly done beyond any 
possible need of re-doing; and the speed of its 
progress will depend on many things. No two 
souls can have precisely the same condition, or 
be moved on to holiness at the same speed. 
Individuality comes in here as elsewhere 
and exerts a modifying influence. But the end 
is certain and the time is ample, because om- 
nipotent power is behind it and an eternal 
future before it. 

We come, then, to consider another very 
momentous question, viz: Will all men re- 
ceive the Christ into union with their souls 
and thus attain unto everlasting life ? This 
question has engaged the keenest of minds, 
been the subje6l of much thought and argu- 
ment, and has met with various answers. It is 
too serious a question to rest on mere specula- 
tion. What f a<5ts have we bearing upon it ? 
The scriptures seem to answer this question 
in the negative, though that is disputed. 
Scripture here must harmonize with scientific 
fa6ls or it will be unconvincing; but this har- 
mony must be sought after through an un- 
biased, dispassionate inquiry, or it will not be 
found. We must approach the subje6l as sin- 
cere searchers for the truth, or else we will 
be only blindly seeking to substantiate a pre- 



160 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

conceived opinion or cherished desire. The 
honest seeker searches for fa6ts and princi- 
ples, and having found them accepts them, 
whether they build up or pull down what he 
has previously regarded as truth. Such a 
seeker should he be who approaches the in- 
quiry: Will all men, sooner or later, accept the 
Christ in their hearts and thus attain ever- 
lasting life ? 

One thing may be taken as granted, viz: 
eternal life is forced upon no man; it could not 
be without doing violence to that freedom of 
adrtion which constitutes him an intelligent be- 
ing. The reception of eternal life, therefore, 
must be a voluntary a6l. It must be an a6l of 
choice, and if the choice is presented to all men, 
then all men may be saved. That it is thus pre- 
sented is the plain and positive declaration of 
Scripture; and it is equally the plain and posi- 
tive declaration of this life's experiences. 
Hence the form of Scripture appeals, warnings 
and invitations: "Come unto me all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest," said the Christ: " Him that cometh to 
me I will in no wise cast out." This invitation 
and assurance recognizes the power of man to 
accept or to refuse. Indeed, Jesus stood weep- 
ing over Jerusalem and its inhabitants because 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 161 

they would not accept the truth he proclaimed, 
the protection he offered, and thus escape their 
impending doom; and he said to the unbe- 
lieving Jews, " Ye will not come to me that ye 
might have life." The freeness of the Scrip- 
ture invitation, based on the power of accept- 
ance, is strikingly set forth in these closing 
words of the Bible: " The Spirit and the bride 
say, come. And let him that heareth say, 
come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will, let him take of the water of 
life freely." Hence, no man is reje6ted arbi- 
trarily; no man is left without invitation; no 
man will remain destitute of eternal life, unless 
by his own voluntary choice. The responsi- 
bility rests just where Jesus put it: " This is 
the condemnation, that light has come into the 
world, and men loved darkness rather than 
light, because their deeds were evil; " and this 
is in keeping with the prophecy of Isaiah con- 
cerning the Christ and his reception among 
men, which foretold that men would reje6t 
Him. This was fulfilled in the life time of 
Jesus, is being fulfilled every day; and the only 
question to be settled is, will these men ever 
see their mistake and repentingiy accept the 
Christ ? 



162 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

Examining this question in the light of prac- 
tical life, there are found several things worthy 
of consideration. Chief among these is the 
tendency toward fixedness of habit and charac- 
ter. Any course of a6tion or way of thinking 
if continued long, becomes habitual to us, and 
soon we follow it instinctively. This point 
reached, change becomes exceedingly difficult; 
sometimes an impossibility. Every day's ex. 
periences are proof of this. Using the hand 
in certain ways for a series of years so trains 
the muscles of the arm into fixedness of a6tion 
that we are incapable of using them differently. 
The like is true of all our muscles, and of our 
mental faculties as well. The mathematician 
views everything from a mathematical stand- 
point, and is only convinced by proof carrying 
with it mathematical certainty. The logician 
accepts no conclusions that are not logically 
drawn from the premises. The philosopher 
demands the whys and the wherefores, while 
the chemist requires a thorough analysis 
and a clear statement of all the constituent 
elements. Mind thus runs in its accustomed 
grooves, and loses largely its power of operat- 
ing outside of these. And everybody knows 
how unwilling we are to give up an old habit 
and how difficult and unpleasant it is to change 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

into new methods and ways. Well, unbelief 
can become a fixed habit like anything else, 
and a continued rejection of the Christ can 
shut the door of the soul and lock it against 
His entrance. And all this comes through the 
law of fixedness in character. Men grow to 
love evil, from long communion with it, and to 
find pleasure in the ways of sin from habitual 
praftice. Such men lose all desire for change; 
nay, they shrink, from the very thought of it, 
and prefer to be what they are. 

Experience also teaches that human sensi- 
bilities lose their sensitiveness to good influ- 
ences through a lengthened practice of evil. 
The history of criminal life is ample proof of 
this, while the lesser experience of every per- 
son gives confirmation. The first offence 
makes the soul shrink and tremble ; but the 
tenth offence is committed without a tremor 
and even amid laughter and joking. The 
pra6lice of wrong hardens; repeated trans- 
gressions silence the voice of conscience; and 
continuance in the way of evil begets a love 
for it. Men become brazen in sin and unblush- 
ing in iniquity, and so reach the point of de- 
light in doing evil and of zest in trampling 
upon things sacred. Where is the hope for 
such? If they could not be reached and won 



164 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

before they became thus hardened, how can 
they be reached and won afterward? Having 
drifted out into the night of moral death until 
they love its darkness and hate the light, what 
is there to bring them to the Christ ? They 
are deaf to the wooings of mercy; their sensi- 
bilities are dead to good influences; they dread 
the very thought of change; what remains for 
them but to drift on into deeper darkness, out 
into that night which has no star of hope 
and no morning dawn beyond it? 

This is a terribly sad possibility for human- 
ity, but no one is compelled to make this possi- 
bility a reality. Eternal life is offered to all, 
pressed upon all, and not one shall fail to re- 
ceive it, except through his own willful rejec- 
tion of it. Nor is the offer of eternal life 
through the Christ ever withdrawn; it is an 
eternal offer; and whenever and wherever a 
soul turns honestly to the Christ, he will find 
Him ready to receive and to bestow; for the 
bestowment of eternal life is not limited by 
time but by conditions; and whoever repents 
believes, accepts, in the gospel sense, will be 
saved, no matter when or where. But while 
the deciding power is never wrested from the 
human soul, it may be lost through the harden- 
ing process of sin which rivets the chains of 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 165 

transgression and hardens the character in 
evil. This forms the " impassible gulf," across 
which hope is unable to reach. Nor in all this 
is there any arbitrary casting off on the part 
of God or of His Christ; no violence done to 
the spirit of love and mercy and justice; no 
departure from the natural law of cause and 
effe6l : nothing but infinitive love and com- 
passion on God's side and willful reje6tion and 
transgression on man's side. God remains 
just though man is condemned. 

What of those who reje6l eternal life and 
become hardened in sin ? Are they doomed to 
an endless life of misery? Are they to be serv- 
ants of evil forever? Both Scripture and fa6l 
unite in giving the answer. Love and mercy 
sit together on the throne with justice and 
join in harmonious rule over the affairs of life 
and death. What life can not save death mer- 
cifully destroys. " The wages of sin is death; 
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." The Scriptures are full of 
this contrast: Life for those who receive the 
Christ, death for those who reje6l Him. Moses 
wrote centuries ago: a A prophet shall the 
Lord God raise up unto you among your breth- 
ren, like unto me; to Him shall ye hearken in 
all things whatever He shall speak unto you. 



166 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

And it shall be, that every soul which shall 
not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly 
destroyed from among the people." David 
said: " The wicked shall perish." Solomon de- 
clared: " Destruction shall be to the workers 
of iniquity." Jesus taught the people, saying: 
" Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is 
the gate that leadeth to destruction." " He 
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; 
and he that believeth not shall not see life." 
Paul declares the end of the wicked to be de- 
struction; and this declaration runs all through 
the Scriptures. Destruction for the wicked? 
according to the revealed word is the final acSl 
of love and mercy. And this accords fully 
with the teachings of nature. Within us and 
without us we find sin to be destruction in 
effecSl. Violation of the laws of health pro- 
duces the wasting of disease. Abuse of our 
mental faculties brings on weakness. Indulg- 
ence in vice destroys the keen sense of purity 
and of uprightness. " The wages of sin is 
death " is written across every pathway of evil 
and is verified by physical, mental and spir- 
itual experience. Every year of transgression 
leaves less of true manhood. And thus all 
points to the awful yet merciful truth that the 
fixed habit of sinfulness is the threshold of 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 167 

death. Both Scripture and nature unite in de- 
claring it; and both equally unite in declaring 
that when this shall be reached, or whether 
reached at all, depends upon the sinner. 
There is no need for haste, and there will be 
no over-riding the law of cause and eff e6t. 
But whether it be swift or slow destruction 
the end is certain if the path of evil is pursued. 
The sinner is his own destroyer; he is a sui- 
cide; he is offered life, but he chooses death. 
And so eternal death is set over against eternal 
life, and all men set to choose; and when all 
have made the final choice, " then cometh the 
end, when He (the Christ) shall deliver up the 
Kingdom to God, even the Father; when He 
shall have aboliwshed all rule, and all authority 
and power. For He must reign till He hath 
put all His enemies under His feet. The last 
enemy that shall be destroyed is death " — the 
wages of sin. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WHAT THIS LIFE BEGINS THE SPIRIT LIFE COMPLETES. 

\ I /HIS life does not bring forth final results. 
s)Jfe It is only a primary stage in the march 
of existence. At death we are ushered 
into the spirit world to take up life's work at 
the very point where this life laid it down. 
What we are at the end of this stage we shall 
be at the beginning of the next. This world 
begins the solution of life's problem, the next 
completes it. Existence here is not designed 
to bring forth completed work or to render 
final decisions. Those are reserved for the 
world to come. But the present is a type of 
what we shall experience hereafter. Here we 
find the law of cause and effe6l operating and 
;so shall we there. Here are we subjeft to a 
liost of influences which tend to mould and 
shape our chara6ler for good or evil, so shall 
we be there. Here we dwell in society, are 
grouped into home life, have our loves and 
hates, our joys and our sorrows, our hopes and 
our fears, and so shall we there. Here we see 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 169 

manhood developing *into godlikeness, blos- 
soming out into every grace and virtue, unfold- 
ing in all the attributes of eternal life; and so 
shall we there. Here also we see manhood 
wrecked by sin, purity killed by iniquity, moral 
death and decay preying upon the human im- 
age of God, ruin creeping on to utter destruc- 
tion, and so shall we there. In short, the other 
life shall be the reproduction of this life with 
the grosser element of matter left out. And 
this must be so, for the reason that infinite wis- 
dom never provides two methods for the ac- 
complishment of the same end or purpose. 
Having established a method it is eternal; and 
so what this life shows as God's method of 
developing human life in righteousness or of 
punishing human transgression by the wages 
of sin, must be God's eternal method for time 
and for eternity. And then we are to remem- 
ber that spirit life only takes up and carries 
forward to completion the work of this life, 
according as it may be that of eternal life or 
eternal death, the fruition of acceptance or the 
rejection of the Christ. Which the final end 
shall be, eternity alone can decide. 

It will be obje6led that such a reproduction 
of this life's experiences, such commingling 
of the good and the evil, such sights as come 



170 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

daily before us here, would rob the life to come 
of all joy, and fill the mother's heart with 
aching pain over her wayward children; that 
in order to find peace and happiness in heaven 
all knowledge of sin and misery must be shut 
out from us — a thing which could not be with- 
out the destruction of memory; and that the 
mother, the companion, the friend, must for- 
ever be oblivious to the condition of the erring 
and sinful whom they knew and loved on 
earth. But this objection is as groundless as 
it is ignoble. To assert that a mother must be 
freed from all care or solicitude for the dear 
ones of her earth-life, or that she must be shut 
out of all knowledge concerning them in order 
to insure the happiness of heaven, is to degrade 
motherhood and to insult motherlove; for it is 
based on pure selfishness, an attribute of char- 
after which has no element of heaven in it. 
It represents the mother as seeking her own 
selfish enjoyment at the expense of forgetful- 
ness of those who are life of her life and have 
been nearest and dearest to her heart. It 
would obliterate that which has been the 
crowning glory of motherhood ever since the 
first mother pressed her infant offspring to her 
loving heart. Those who offer this objection 
fail to perceive its supremely selfish unworthi- 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 171' 

ness 3 or else make it out of a supremely selfish 
heart. That mother is to be pitied who would 
seek happiness either here or hereafter, in for- 
getfulness of even the most wayward child 
that was ever hushed to sleep by her sweet 
lullaby. The more wayward, the more need 
of a mother's ministrations, if, peradventure,. 
reformation may come. 

Mother love is sacred, divine, immortal. It 
will have abundant place and opportunity for 
exercise, like the other propensities of the 
human soul, in the spirit world. It is no evan- 
escent feeling of a day; it is no mere outgrowth 
of earthly environments; it is a God-given at- 
tribute of the soul, and is as enduring as the 
soul itself. The spirit mother will care for,, 
watch over, and assist her children, according 
to their needs, as lovingly, intently, self-sacri- 
ficingly, as she did in earth-life; and who can 
successfully deny that her opportunities for 
doing this in the spirit world, will be greater 
than they ever have been in this world? Nay 
may it not be that in the spirit land she will 
be enabled to do far more for the children of 
her love than was possible for her in the flesh 
As yet we know little about spirit forces, or 
the power these have in the affairs of this 
world; but the Scriptures assure us that we 



172 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

shall be like the angels, and they are messen- 
gers of mercy sent to do the divine will concern- 
ing the children of men. Angels, therefore, 
must possess power to communicate with those 
in the flesh as well as with those out of the 
flesh. We shall be like them. The mother, 
from the spirit land, may, therefore, do as 
much, perhaps more, for her children on earth 
than she did when by the side of them in the 
flesh. Her work may be less material but 
none the less effective. Hence the removal of 
father, mother or friend may not be the great 
calamity we often think it is. It may be, and 
no doubt is, God's method of working out 
some greater good for the living. The father, 
the mother, the friend may become the guard- 
ian spirit of the home, the guiding spirit of 
the family circle, the dispenser of rich bless- 
ings, and the prote6lor of heart and life. 

A mother's love has been here taken for 
illustration because it is the highest type of 
human love. Below it, and closely allied with 
it, is filial love. This seems to lack something 
of the enduringness of parental love, though 
we see wonderful manifestations of its strength 
and devotion. Next comes brotherly and sis- 
terly affection; then ties of relationship; then 
attractions of friendship and association; and 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 173 

lastly the sympathies of our common humanity. 
Each of these is modified by congeniality, and 
vary in intensity and endurance. What these 
affe<5tions and relations are here is a type of 
what they will be hereafter. They are based 
on God's eternally established law of affinity 
between human hearts, and will continue for- 
ever. Undoubtedly they will feel the modify- 
ing force of environments in the other world 
as they do in this. Variety, as the outgrowth of 
personality, will exist. The depth and devo- 
tion of attachment will find their root in char- 
acter and through congeniality determine in- 
dividual association. As here, so there, will 
hearts blend in love, affecStion and sympathy, 
and the hand of helpfulness be stretched out 
in aid. 

Hence we see how homelike will be life in the 
spirit land; home groups, friendship, associa- 
tions, helpfulness, mutual interest. Love, pure 
and selfish, will find ample scope for exercise, 
with the selfish gradually eliminated or else 
growing into a ruling passion, to end in death. 
Pure affecStion alone is everlasting; but pure 
affe6tion requires time and exercise for its 
perfection. It begins in the crudeness of im- 
perfect human nature, and, like all the graces 
and the virtues, must develop by eliminating 



174 HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

the bad and pra6tically strengthening the good. 
This life may be, and often is, too short for the 
• completion of this work, and then it must be 
carried over into the other life; for since God's 
methods are unchanging, as we here are to 
■"grow in grace and in a knowledge of the 
truth," so, if we fail of reaching perfection in 
graces and fulness of a knowledge of the truth 
in this life, we must complete the work in the 
life to come. Hence we have every reason to 
believe that our development in virtues and 
graces will continue beyond the grave, until 
we attain graces without a blemish, and virtues 
without defecSt, and home life where joys are 
ever growing sweeter and fuller, where hearts 
are constantly becoming more and more firmly 
knit together, and where the sources of delight 
shall go on forever increasingly. 

But the supreme affe6lion of the other life, 
as here it ought to be, will be love for God. 
By nature we are religious beings and bow in 
reverence and admiration for that which is 
beautiful, grand, sublime, perfe6l. We are 
awed by the thought of omnipotence, omnis- 
cience and omnipresence, and are compelled 
to bow before Him who is the possessor and 
embodiment of these attributes. When we 
add to these the consideration that God is also 



HERE AND HEREAFTER. 175 

•characterized by infinite goodness, mercy, com- 
passion and loving kindness, and that all these 
are exercised under the direction of unchang- 
ing love for our well-being, our worship rises 
to adoration. Thus spring up within us feel- 
ings of thanksgiving and praise, and so we 
come to love God, with an increasing fervor 
that eventually absorbs our " might, mind and 
strength." This supreme love to God purifies 
and san6tifies all other love. It leads us to 
love everything that God loves, and intensifies 
the love we have one for another. And since 
love to God is eternal, it follows that all pure 
loves, which are only lesser streams from the 
fountain of divine love, must be eternal also. 
This accords with the teaching of Jesus who 
summed up the whole duty of man in supreme 
love to God and self -equal love to our neighbor. 
Love rounds out life's joys for time and for 
eternity. Thus the here and the hereafter are 
only two sections of life's whole. The experi- 
ences of the first are the revelations of the 
second. What shall be is known by what 
now is. 



p 

, 3 u 

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#T7o( 




